


can i tell you something?

by dancetothisbeat



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: A bit strange, Alternate Universe - College/University, Diary/Journal, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, M/M, Starbucks, Tyler's College Diary, bc gerard, brendon is like. extra., frank is a soft, gerard has all of the copic markers, he's obsessed, lgbtq+, like three straight people oops, one of the best ideas ive had tbh, only really in chap 7, pete's...., possible homophobia in chap 4?, ryan and tyler are roommates and its great, ryan's a repressed hipster and punk, silly and cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-10-05 22:29:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 23,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10318493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancetothisbeat/pseuds/dancetothisbeat
Summary: hello. my name's tyler joseph, i'm 20 years old, and i'm starting college.why am I writing it down? because of jenna black.





	1. aubergine walls and ryan ross

**Author's Note:**

> an idea ive had for a while, its silly and cute and we need more cute joshler in this world. also i thought a diary au would be interesting to do.

February 1st, 2017.

Hello. My name’s Tyler Joseph. I’m 20 years old, and I’m starting college.

Why am I writing my college experiences? After all, I am 20, shouldn’t I just live my life the way I want too?

I should be living my life. But see, Jenna Black exists.

Jenna, my dear high school friend, got depressed that we have to part ways for college, _even though I took a whole year off after I graduated high school,_ begged me that if I ever went, that I would have to document it in some way so that she can live the same experiences as I did.

And I know my self esteem isn’t the best, but I’m not going to room with a random stranger for half a year and then have them see me writing daily in a journal for them to scour it when I’m gone at class. I’m sorry, stranger that may be reading, but that’s how my life goes.

I assumed that someone would read this. Why would anyone read this? Don’t they have better things to do, like _study_ or _exercise_?

Granted I don’t read and don’t do either of those, so my life is as sad as it can be.

I’m in the backseat of my parents’ Sedan, them driving me to the college so I can be as safe as I can, because people have zero trust in me being able to function as a human being. Surprising they didn’t make me room with Maddie or Zack. I guess people _do_ trust me.

“Tyler Robert Joseph, get off that phone and help your father with your things!” my mother yells.

Kelly Joseph is a loud and proud mother hen who only let me get a Twitter on the one condition that I followed her. Me, being a 16 year old who just wanted friends, agreed, and my first follower was my mother.

Her Twitter, per mother hen obligation, is full of photos of me and my siblings living our lives. As if I need to see Jay follow in my footsteps trying to college with an athletic scholarship or Maddie trying to draw. I’ve lived with them for most of my life. I know what they are like. I don’t need to be reminded, _mom_.

After being extremely concerned on what I needed for college, I googled what I needed (obviously) and bought every single thing they recommended because Tyler Robert Joseph does not mess around with stuff like this and definitely didn’t procrastinate until two days before the semester started.

Because, that would have been absurd.

I didn’t know who my roommate was going to be, yeah when I registered they gave me a fancy sheet with my schedule, dorm room number, and apparently my roommate is a ‘George Ross III’. Which _definitely_ helped me narrow down who and what personality this guy was going to have, other than his name, and, now that I think about it, this dude probably has no idea on who I am either, which obviously helps in this situation.

And now, my mother is yelling at me to hurry up and help my dad, again, so I guess I’m signing off? What do I say? _Goodbye??_ Goodbye.

___________________________________________________________________________

Hello. Again.

It’s now like, 9 p.m, and, I know who my roommate is.

After saying goodbye to my family, and entering the dorms, panic set in.

I was going to be living with George Ross, who I now know hates being called George, and prefers going by his middle name, Ryan, for the next five or so months. I wouldn’t imagine ever doing this, again, because roommates are total coin flips on whether they would be a good person and actually care about maintaining the dorm, or a total douche who sleeps all day.

Because I’ve _seen_ that one video on YouTube about the guy with the horrible college roommates, and I can’t see myself living with one, much less _five._ So props to him. He gets the award for the ‘Most Patient Person Who Can Actually Tolerate Human Beings.’

So I haul all my suitcases up the elevator and to the floor where I would be living, and after a few deep breaths, I open the door, pushing the suitcases in first because I thought I wasn’t prepared enough. Both mentally and physically.

I did not expect to walk in on a fully painted aubergine room with fairy lights and polaroid photos on the wall.

Firstly, because after knowing him for a good like, four hours and reviewing schedules with him, I know Ryan would hack my phone somehow and get access to this, so, first off, that’s a pretty scummy thing to do, and know that I support the aubergine walls. Don’t think I didn’t.

So the walls were painted aubergine, there’s fairy lights and way too many polaroids and vinyl records for your average human, so either George Ross liked his aesthetic environments, or he was a repressed hipster. Either way, the room was nice and not dirty, so maybe the universe took pity on me and sent me a repressed hipster as a roommate. Amazing.

He also had some good tastes in music from all the vinyls he had, a good mix too. Never thought I would see The Beatles being put up against Blink-182. You discover new things all the time. So now at that moment in time I knew two things about George Ross. He was a repressed hipster _and_ a repressed punk. What a colorful person.

I do not live by normal societal rules, because life would be boring that way, so I walk over to the wall I now deem “The Pile Of Polaroids.” Not just because I am creative, but near the wall is a sticky note that said that same phrase along with a :) face. George didn’t seem like the person to use a face, so I assumed that it was someone else who put it up there. Sorry Ryan.

The polaroids were _extremely_ artsy, featuring the sun and moon and the skies and beaches. Lots of scenery, the occasional cup of coffee, and a few of two guys. One was taller, with soft eyes, a warm smile, and hair parted to the side. The other had a quoof going on, a forehead larger than my future, and a big smile. (Again, Ryan, don’t murder me. I didn’t know you or Brendon when I walked in. I wanna live past 25.)

Then, someone tapped me on the shoulder, and, panic. I rapidly turned around, pretty mortified, but luckily it wasn’t someone trying to murder me, it was the taller one from the polaroids. Ryan, his name is, but again, I didn’t know that at the time.

“Hey. You’re Tyler? Tyler Joseph?” he asks, and, man. He’s got that soft, smooth voice that most people would want to listen to it read them bedtime stories. I ramble on in my head about how soft his voice is until I realize he keeps on staring waiting for a response.

“Yeah. That’s me. You’re George Ross,” I point out, and I let out my hand for a handshake, because I have no idea on how to interact with humans and didn’t want to seem awkward.

He slightly cringes, and I dropped. I haven’t even known him for _three_ minutes, and I already made him uncomfortable. Instead of a bachelor’s degree I should have gone into sociology and how to communicate well with people. I guess he noticed the drop, because he speaked up.

“The third. I find my name ridiculous though, so by all intents and purposes, call me Ryan.”

The sophisticated way of talking added more information about what I knew of Ryan Ross. He was a repressed hipster and punk, and was some sort of English major because hardly anyone spoke that poetically anymore. Now all we say is ‘lit’ and ‘fam’. And he just used a word longer than five letters.

“Noted.”

Someone throw me off a cliff. Humans are strange creatures.

“So,” I tell him, dragging out the ‘O’. “Who’s the other guy in the polaroids?”

He probably wasn’t comfortable with telling a complete and random stranger but I wanted to know the truth and wanted to get to know him and start conversations like how normal people do and _not_ stand around like I have no idea on how to speak English.

He smiles, his warm smile and man, Ryan, your smile’s the best. How do humans even be as pure and soft as you are? I smile and people think I’m faking it or that I’m scared. And they aren’t wrong either. But my mom says I have a pretty smile, but also that’s my mom, so Ryan, comment on how good you think my smile is. I know you’re reading this because I have Music Theory at 10:00 a.m. and that’s when you have a two hour break. Lucky duck.

“Brendon Urie. I’ve known him for quite the time and have been dating him for most of it. Pretty hyperactive, but he means well. He also decorated the dorm room, if you care about that,” the Ryan smile was on his face the _whole_ time and that’s when I could tell that the universe really cared about me and sent a wonderful roommate who was an actual good human.

THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT RYAN:

-he’s 22 and in his sophomore year (apparently he went to unlv at 18 but dropped out)

-he’s majoring in creative writing, which, i _totally_ guessed earlier, and minoring in photography, which, explains a lot

-brendon was one of his closest friends in high school, which, is adorable

-he started a band at 14 inspired by blink but left it in favor of writing

-spencer, the band’s former drummer, has been his best friend since the age of five

I’d call this day a success. Ryan’s pretty chill, and we had Chinese take-out together. Goals.

Who knows what class is going to be like. Hopefully I'm not dead by then.


	2. copic markers and new faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And then, Brendon Urie, in his full glitter glory, came in last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> introducing new characters and a weird format that hopefully wont return. it was just for the first impression class recaps.

February 2nd, 2017

Sleeping was pretty weird. Good news is, I’m not dead, and it’s now Day 2 of college.

I felt _very_ uncomfortable staring at a polaroid of Brendon until I feel asleep, because I hadn’t even _seen_ his face in real life yet, and all I wanted to do was sleep. I eventually did though, which was good. Hopefully I’ll ask Ryan to move that polaroid one day.

Speaking of, I got his response on my smile, which made me question things? It was:

“It does give off the aura that you are uncomfortable, but with time it will improve.”

I bet he serenades Brendon with those poetry skills. One time I tried to be as fancy as that, but Maddie told me that I needed to stop. Siblings are the best. Jay once said to follow my dreams. Meanwhile Zack shrugged and went back to watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix.

I guess siblings are coin flips too. They can be real jerks sometimes, but I guess they do care about me? Occasionally.

My first true college meal, however, was some Eggo waffles. I bought the toaster, because, I am prepared for _everything_. Of course though, I didn’t want to go _too_ overboard, so it was a huge relief when I walked into the kitchen and saw Ryan on his phone with Eggos and a big Costco sized stack of paper plates in the corner.

I used the word ‘kitchen’ extremely loosely. It’s more of a small 6 by 3 feet rectangle with a mini fridge, sink, and oven. I told my family that I would have greatly liked living in a small apartment on my own than in the college dorm with a roommate, but apparently the _‘true college experience’_ is what I am doing now. Eating heated up Eggo waffles and writing journal entries. Fun.

I really don’t want to be late for classes on my first day, so I’ll do a quick summary of each class when they’re done. Is that good enough, Jenna?

\-------------------------------------------------

MUSIC THEORY: 10:00 A.M.

I now know what Brendon Urie is like in person. And it’s pretty wild.

I walked into the classroom, and, being early as to get the best seat (in the back, of course), start setting up my super fancy college setup, aka my laptop, headphones, and a pen and paper.

Yeah, the pen and paper are basically worthless in this modern age where anything can be electronic, but, who knows, what if some crazy virus hits my laptop in the middle of the lesson and with no pen and paper I would be a sitting duck with nothing. And I really _don’t_ want to ask the people next to me. That’s just opening up doors for a lot more awkward encounters than I need in life and really do not want to handle.

The professor stared at me weirdly for being early, which, like, why man? Shouldn’t you be really proud that there is a student so dedicated, so in love with the subject that they showed up early for your class? And on the first day of the semester too? What a _douche_.

And then, Brendon Urie in his full glitter glory, came in last.

“‘Sup, bitches? It’s Brendon Urie!” he shouted in the near full classroom, wearing a leopard print shirt with leather pants and hi-top Converse. This guy was ready for some learning.

“Mr. Urie,” the teacher said in his monotone, nasally voice. “May I remind you that it is only 10:00 in the morning and how nearly no one has the time to put up with you?”

Brendon got _roasted_ by our Music Theory professor. That’s some hardcore stuff right there. I would drop out of the school in shame if I was him. The guilt would never have gone away. No matter how hard I tried. I would have been eighty years old, in my rocking chair in Kansas, remembering the time my professor roasted me openly in class.

“ _Actually,_ professor. I can list people that can put up with me at any time, but you probably don’t care, so I’ll take my seat instead,” Brendon winks and smirks, and I _know_ that wink, because I had to stare at it for like an hour yesterday trying to fall asleep.

And at that point, I realised that the only empty seat was the one right next to mine. Great.

\--------------------------------------------

VIRTUAL DESIGN: 12:00 p.m.

Brendon really does mean well, but it’s real hard to see in some cases. Actually, in most cases.

Some great one-liners from our two hour class are:

-“Wow, you’re bunking with _Ryan_???? I’m so _sorry_.”

-”I like my leopard print okay? It’s real classy.”

-”So _you’re_ that guy who Ryan texted me about yesterday!”

-”I may be homosexual, but I prefer the term _holosexual_.”

-”I will probably steal one of your forks.”

I am pretty sure he referenced some YouTuber in the class more times that I can keep track of, and he is a nice guy, just really. Loud. And extra.

But Music Theory suits him, he got chosen to play the piano to demonstrate a practice the professor taught us, and man. Ryan’s got that soft voice but Brendon’s got that piano skills _and_ the powerful voice. This small dude, Patrick, had a good voice too. As Brendon put it, “Yo, he’s got a soul voice.” What a guy.

I wasn’t too early to Virtual Design, but I was early enough to see this man haul around inside the classroom a really big suitcase while having a Starbucks in his hand. I now know him as Gerard Way. Now I may be a total stranger when it comes to human interaction, but this poor dude was _clearly_ suffering, and I felt bad.

“Hey! Seems like you’ve got some really heavy stuff in there.” I call out to him, and he turns around, nearly dropping his $6 dollar frappucino. Good thing I came to his aid when I did.

“What? This?” the stranger turns toward the suitcase. “Nah, it’s just all my Copic Sketch markers. I just came from Character Design, so now I have no other options but to move all of them to my other classes.”

And now that I’ve actually googled what exactly Copic Sketch markers are, I can see why it looked like he was struggling. Both in real life and money wise. Each marker is _8_ _dollars._ One of these art markers is worth more than the Eggos I ate for breakfast. And sure, they are all fancy with them being alcohol based and blendable, but holy, there’s 358 colors. And this guy, Gerard, probably had them all. At 8 dollars each marker.

“I can help carry them, if you want,” I start, reaching for the suitcase. He takes a step back, sitting on a bench, unzipping the suitcase, and hands me a big fat plastic case that has more shades of blue than I thought _existed_.

“There you go. I’m Gerard, by the way. Heh, way. That’s my last name. Way. Gerard Way.”

He was socially awkward, and I felt obligated to be his friend because I am also socially awkward and we both need more friends to fill our self esteem.

“Tyler Joseph. And, if you don’t mind, just _how many markers do you have?_ ” I shake his hand, my Ryan certified awkward smile on, and I hope that Gerard wasn’t scared of me by this point.

His eyes gleamed, and I guess it was because he _really_ liked these markers. They gleamed like if the inks in the markers were like the blood in his veins and how the art he creates represents the images in his head and a bunch of other really artsy things that are going around his mind.

“All of them. I’ve been saving up since I was 20, I’m 26 now, and one day I hope my art will take off and I can be able to afford all of the refills,” Gerard blanked, and woah. This guy has been buying 8 dollar markers for six years and doesn’t regret it. That’s some hardcore dedication.

\----------------------------------------------

MATH: 3:00 p.m

Gerard’s _super_ cool and I want to be his friend. That’s it. I wanna be Gerard Way’s friend.

Apparently, he interned for DC when he first started illustrating and was even offered a comic deal if he ever continued to pursue art, which is why he’s doing his graduate degree. What a dude.

He’s got a younger brother, Mikey, who doesn’t share any of my classes, but I think I would want to meet him one day.

I got a one hour break, which I took to go back to our beautiful aubergine room, like Ryan, _please_ paint all of the dorm room aubergine, I would die, to find a sticky note on the dorm door, which was alarming, and a pair of high heels.

_“Hey, Tyler, my man! Took Ryan out for a quickie lunch break, he wanted to visit Spencer and Jon and catch up, so if you see these heels, (they’re mine btw, aren’t they amazing?) it means that we’re not home yet. Just take the heels in with you. -xoxoxo Brendon! :)”_

So I grab these heels, these really tacky three inch platforms, and go in the dorm, taking a bit to appreciate the aesthetics, again, Ryan, I _live_ for these walls. Y’know aubergine means eggplant?

I take a little nap, again stuck staring at a photo of Brendon Urie, eating a quick lunch, and came running out of the door, only to come in contact with another person.

End me.

He’s _real_ tall, taller than my future, and is also pretty scared, which I don’t blame him for. He almost got run over by a short half Lebanese trying to get to class in time.

“Sorry! I wasn’t paying attention!” he stutters, and I was like, nooo. _I_ messed up, not this guy.

“No! It’s fine. My name's Tyler Joseph, I’m so sorry, I _really_ have to leave,” I _ran_ out of there as fast as I could, he seemed nice but I was too late to continue apologizing, and it seemed like he lived on my floor so I could apologize later. (which i still haven’t done. crap.)

“Dallon Weekes. I -” that’s all I heard before I shut the elevator door.

After landing on the correct floor, I start booking it to the classroom. I’m sweating, I’m panting, I think I need more exercise. I guess all the basketball I did for 15 years never paid off for all this _running_.

I sat down at the only seat available, and it’s next to a guy with an egg yolk for hair. The dude looked like Big Bird from behind. What was this guy thinking when he dyed his hair? It wasn’t pastel yellow either, it was bright neon yellow which made him look like the sun. Or a highlighter.

“I’m Josh! Josh Dun, full name Joshua William Dun. How’re you?” he smiles, eyes crinkling in a bit. It was cute. He looked like a dog. A nice happy dog who enjoyed running around in the rainbows.

“Tyler Robert Joseph. I hate math.” I blankly stare at him, but I did the right thing, because I revealed what my entire personality was like in that one sentence. That’s all it takes for someone to get to know me. I scream and stare blankly. Everyone wants to be my friend.

He chuckled, and oh my lord this guy was basically a human dog. Ryan’s showed me photos of his dog, and I think that if Dottie came to life, she would be this guy. No doubts.

“Don’t we all?”

The professor then coughed, very loudly to be a regular cough, and that was how I met an actual ray of sunshine, Josh Dun.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Class has ended and I wanna pass out.

Brendon’s sleeping over in our dorm, and even though I asked him to move the polaroid I’m forced to stare at, he just shrugged and said that he was, and I quote, ‘too fabulous to be moved’, and just added a bunch more to the wall. This guy was too much to handle.

He also _made_ me drink a cup of milk for dinner, and Ryan just stood there, in obvious shame, which I don’t blame him for. I admire him for putting up with this energetic glitter man.

And he spent a good chunk of time adjusting the fairy lights, saying weird jokes, ‘making these high heels work’, which like, okay. Those tacky 3 inch platforms don’t work with anything. I’m sorry. Ryan, please replace those. It would do us all a favor.

They are now asleep, and they look cute. I admit it. Hold this victory over your heads. You win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope the glitter man was good enough. his character is so extra and i'm in love.


	3. group projects and taco bell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The professor then started the lesson, and, do you know what this guy did? He announced a group project.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more silliness and randomness. new character too!

February 3rd, 2017

 

I feel sort of obligated to start singing Rebecca Black.

Her music isn’t even _good,_ but right now I feel like Friday is a thing to celebrate. As if surviving three days of college was something to party over.

According to Brendon, _everything_ is worth partying over, but I feel so done with college, and there’s still 4 more years left. Who decided on the amount of schooling in this country? Isn’t 12 years mandatory a bit _too_ much for our youth? Like yeah, a 5-year-old shouldn’t and can’t be able to do calculus, but is it _necessary_ to suffer around 11-12 years of math to be able to do it?

It’s possible, _but is it plausible???_

Jenna, know that you will forever be my closest friend in this not so great planet, but if I die from all the stress and midterms and finals that I will eventually have to suffer through, realise that it was a good thing and that I leave you with all the furniture I bought for Ryan and I’s bedroom.

Also _please_ come back I want to show you the aubergine room that I now call home. Both me and Ryan call it home. And Brendon too, I guess? I have no clue what his roommate is. Better check up on that.

I wasn't able to ask him who his roommate was, because all I heard coming from Ryan’s room was, “ _B_ _abe_ , I’m _horny_!” That line sums up his entire character. I’m sure you’d enjoy his friendship.

“Be quiet and start eating breakfast because your first class is in 10 minutes,” Ryan deadpans, which, Ryan, you should be praised. You know how to control people.

Oh, wait. My first class is in 10 minutes. And Brendon has Music Theory with me. Oops.

I all but ran to the tiny kitchen; Brendon following me. We each made 3 Eggo waffles and ate them in like 5 minutes, put our shoes on, and after Ryan yelling at Brendon to _not_ wear the 3 inch platforms, which like thanks, we both bolted to the elevator to try and be on time for the class.

“Wait, Ty!” Brendon panted, chest heaving; exaggerated arm movements following. “Did you hear me? In the morning?”

“Yes, yes I did,” I sigh, patting him on the shoulder. “And I would have liked to live my life without that knowledge.”

Was I _too_ hard on him? Maybe. But it was 10 a.m, and I didn’t want to deal with him yet. Like how our professor roasted him yesterday. I guess I can get lessons from Ryan on ‘How to deal with Brendon Urie at Any Occasion.’. I think I would rather take that course instead.

\-----------------------------------

Honestly, Gerard should just _stop_ dragging all his markers to the class. It’s been rough seeing him dragging his suitcase all around the Art building, but today he got a little smart and got someone to help him. That’s good, but he’s also still having a Starbucks in his hand. Which makes things back to normal.

“Frank Anthony Iero, Junior. If you _dare_ drop one of these Copic cases, I’ll send Pete Wentz on you,” Gerard hisses, and woah. Gerard looked like he was going to straight up slap this guy if _one_ Copic marker fell to the floor. I wouldn’t blame him. These are eight dollar markers Frank was carrying.

“Gee, it’s fine. I won’t drop these, I know how much they cost, so I’m gonna be careful,” the short man replied. Frank seemed to be struggling under the weight of all the markers. I hope _I_ didn’t look like that yesterday when I helped Gerard. That would have sucked.

“Also,” Gerard piped up. “I have a new shipment of refills coming in soon, so we’re gonna double date with Mikey and refill all of the dead markers.”

Frank sighed. I still haven’t met the younger Way, but if he made Frank let out _that sigh,_ well then I don’t know what to expect.

“Mikey won’t even _refill_ them! And don’t get me started on Pete Wentz because he would probably try to chew on them and-”

“You will try to have a good time, Frank, and we’ll go to VeggieGrill for dinner.”

Then they walked away, and, wow. That was a very stereotypical ‘old married couple fight on a 90’s sitcom’, but I _lived_ for it almost as much as our aubergine dorm walls. Almost.

I’ve heard things about Pete Wentz, and the dude kind of scares me? Like Patrick from Music Theory is his best friend, and I always hear Patrick complain about Pete setting fire to things or Pete smashing his bass again, and this dude sounds pretty destructive. No wonder Frank said that he would chew up Gerard’s Copics. I’m starting to believe it.

The Virtual Design professor is kind of a jerk, though. He called out this poor girl because her design was ‘too pastel and childlike’. I thought the concept was really sick, but college professors don’t really care, they just want to get paid. Gerard got a bit mad too because his comic like art style was getting minus points from the professor.

I’m not even _that_ artsy, it’s just that I thought the class was cool and thought I could get into art. I think I will continue the class. Just fulfill what the professor wants and get that easy graduation credit

\------------------------------------

Josh Dun is a weird human.

He showed up to class on his skateboard, which was _completely_ okay, but it also sorted him into the stereotypical punk esque guy. With his unbuttoned flannel, t-shirt, backwards cap, galaxy tattoos, dyed hair, nose ring, gauges in his ears, this guy had them all. And he looked _good._

“Hey, Tyler! Can I sit by you again? I think you’re cool,” he rode by my desk, happy smile on. I got to admit, for the punk exterior, this guy was a cinnamon roll at heart.

“Uh, sure.”

The professor then started the lesson, and, do you know what this guy did? _He announced a group project._ A mandatory group project that I do not want to do. Also, it’s the third day of the semester. Why? Can’t the professor just chill and announce a mandatory group project when I actually have people to work with? I guess I had Josh.

But then he _betrayed_ me.

“Hey, Debby! Work with me!” Josh called out to this girl behind us, Debby, and I facepalmed. Now I’m forced to interact with other humans to try and find _a_ partner.

“You too, Tyler,” he playfully punched me in the arm. “You seem to be in a pickle, and me and Debby plan to get you out of it.”

What did I do for this guy to like me? All I did was talk to him for two classes and let him sit next to me yesterday. It feels sort of nice? People usually steer clear of me because I seem scary, which I don’t see, I think wearing black hoodies and jeans are _perfectly_ normal. And what can I do to them? Nothing. I don’t even want to interact with them, so why would I harm them?

“Tyler? Debbs and I need your number for the group project.”

Oh, no. I wasn’t paying attention to Josh. Or his friend.

I hummed. “Sorry, I was thinking about what me and my roommate are going to have for dinner.”

Which wasn’t too wrong, I didn’t think we could afford to eat any more take-out.

“Cool. My roommate’s pretty wild. I don’t know if you know him, though. His name’s Brendon.”

If this dog in a human body had _Brendon_ as a roommate, then I can take on anything.

\----------------------------------------

I apologized to the poor dude I almost ran over yesterday. It was very uncomfortable, but he seems nice. Apparently, he’s good friends with Brendon and plays bass, which I _try_ to play the bass, so next time I want to bass, I guess I’ll ask him then.

Ryan’s asleep already, which I don’t blame him for, he looked real tired, probably from having to deal with Brendon all day. I say it like Brendon’s the worst, but he’s actually pretty cool. For lunch, he brought me Taco Bell, and, dude. I _live_ for Taco Bell. I think I live for it more than the aubergine walls I call home. I live for chalupas. I was there for the release of the Naked Chicken Chalupa.

The nachos from there aren’t good. So Brendon bringing me the Naked Chicken was an actual godsend. I was about to worship him when he brought them, but he smirked and said it was Ryan’s idea to buy the chalupa. I don’t even _care_. They brought me _chalupas_.

I’m sitting here in the kitchen with the leftover chalupas. Josh added me to a group chat with him and Debby, and my plan is to stay away from it because I don’t want to be bothered with trying to interact with humans this late at night.

Tomorrow, though, is Saturday. And I have to work on the group project with Debby and Josh.

I’ll do my best on it, but I’m pretty sure I will do only what I need to do and then leave. Because that’s how I, Tyler Robert Joseph, functions.

Brendon insisted on taking me and Ryan to iHop so I could meet their buddies Spencer and Jon, and to eat some pancakes. I think a party of 5 to iHop is _way_ too many and too much to handle, but Ryan was really tired and said we’d go before collapsing. Brendon then jumped on him, which scared me, told him goodnight before giving me a quick hair flip and leaving. Huh.

I found a new polaroid, and it was of my chalupas and a thumbs up sign. Definitely not taken by the photography minor Ryan Ross. Question: where do they get all that polaroid film? A pack of like 20 sheets is 12 dollars. And there’s _way_ more than 20 polaroids on this wall. Some of them do look like they were taken like six years ago, but still. That’s too much film.

Brendon’s wink is still what I’m forced to stare at when trying to fall asleep.

_But,_ I do see Ryan’s polaroid camera on top of his record player. And Ryan’s still asleep. 

I know what I'm going to stare at while trying to sleep now.

\---------------------------------------------

In case of death due to Ryan Ross,

Tyler Robert Joseph _did not_ take the polaroid photo of the aforementioned Ryan Ross. It was Ryan Ross' partner, Brendon Urie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope it was good! the format's going to switch up next chapter, so look forward to that.
> 
> tell me what you thought of it, and dw more joshler is to come in the near future


	4. homemade spaghetti and ihop drama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naturally, iHop results in someone getting punched in the face and falling unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one of the longer chapters! i focused most of it on them at ihop. also much thanks for almost 200 hits!
> 
> also to clear some things up, no the dad isn't homophobic. if it does bother someone, i will take his part out and rewrite it :)

February 4th, 2017

 

You know, you would assume that going to iHop with four other people, would be a _normal_ thing to do that would result in us eating pancakes, hanging out, and having a good time.

 _Naturally,_ iHop results in someone getting punched in the face and falling unconscious.

I’m pretty sure it’s _very_ clear who got punched, but as I am currently sitting in Jon Walker’s apartment, waiting, I think I’ve got time to tell the wonderful story of how Brendon Urie got punched at an iHop.

So I get woken up at 8:30, and I’m already cranky, but apparently the best time to eat iHop pancakes is right when they open because they are the ‘most fresh’. Which makes no sense considering their pancakes are made to order. That’s just the logic that Brendon holds.

I skip out on eating Eggo waffles because today I’m eating _actual_ food. I chose to wear my beautiful Forever 21 floral kimono, because I can. Brendon has some dalmatian print on, and both me and Ryan let out a sigh at his animal print choice. Brendon just said something about Cruella De Ville being a fashion _icon_ , and getting in Ryan’s Civic to pick up Spencer and Jon.

Now, Spencer Smith may seem a bit reserved, but he is the most civil guy I’ve met, and helped to prevent the punch. But sometimes you can’t control people. Jon Walker is _super_ chill, which I respect. They are beautiful people.

We pull up at Jon’s apartment, and they walk out. Both of them just have a t-shirt and jeans on, but Jon’s wearing flip flops. Okay.

“You’re the guy I’ve been hearing about. I’m Spencer,” he said, smiling and reaching out for a handshake. What a gentleman.

“So have I, don’t let Spence take all the credit. Name’s Jon Walker.”

I shake both of their hands, and then we drove to iHop, making really good small talk on the way. I’m proud of myself for keeping a conversation that long. All of them are really good friends so me keeping up with all of them is something I’m happy about.

We get to the iHop, and we’re greeted by an energetic teen named Hayley. She was really hyper for it being 9 o’clock in the morning and how the rest of the staff were half-asleep.

“Welcome to iHop! How many of you are eating today?” she asks, a chipper smile on her face.

Brendon, naturally, takes her on, but it wouldn’t have been Brendon without him doing a hair flip before answering her.

“5. Put the name under Ryan Ross.”

Ryan sighs, naturally, and Spencer just gave him a look of ‘Yeah I know but I’ll help pay’. Jon’s just looking at the small menu, and I stood there awkwardly, as usual.

“Okay, sir, seeing as there’s a vacant table right now, please follow me,” she ushers, and I take a quick perimeter check of the iHop. Most people seated were war veterans and families. Which is why our party of 5 young adult men probably confused the heck out of them.

So Hayley leads us to our table, which was in plain view of a family, which was the first thing we got wrong. She hands out the menus, smiled and walked away.

Spencer, Jon and I were facing behind the family, while Ryan and Brendon were right in front of them. That was the second thing we got wrong.

Brendon, naturally, inclines us for a table selfie, and as we take it, I could see the father of the family slowly shaking his head in disapproval. He probably thought we were some crazed millennials who went here for vegan pancakes. Which we _weren’t_.

Then, the third strike in this whole situation, was Brendon scrolling on his phone, nudging Ryan’s shoulder. Pretty innocent, but then he, in his loud voice, said:

“Babe, I can’t decide on the Nashville filter or the Earlybird filter for our selfie.”

 _Completely_ normal thing to ask a romantic partner, but the dad across from our group didn’t seem to agree.

“I don’t think that public display of affection at an iHop is appropriate.”

I don’t know if the guy was trying to be homophobic, looking back he probably wasn’t, but Brendon didn’t really take it too well.

“Then what else am I supposed to call my boyfriend?” he muttered, pretty angry about this.

“I apologize on his behalf, sir, we never meant to anger you,” Spencer stepped in, kind smile on, and we all at the table prayed that Spencer would have been enough to let the argument die. We hadn’t even _eaten_ yet.

“Thank you for your efforts young man, but an apology from your friend too would be nice,” the father glared. At this point his children were looking _slightly_ concerned, and his wife looked ready to lead them out of the iHop, but Brendon had other ideas.

“I’m sorry but I just don’t think there’s anything to apologize over. I called my boyfriend ‘babe’ and I think I should be able to do that when I want to,” Brendon _seethed_. At this point, Jon finally spoke up after being dead for a while.

“Don’t mind him, Bren, just post the selfie with the Nashville filter and we can order,” Jon patted him on the back, and Ryan was just confused the whole time. Can’t blame him. To be honest, so was I. And I didn’t want to say anything because I felt like my kimono would have been made fun of and I don’t need to deal with that.

“Look, sir,” Ryan spoke, and we all looked at him. “We have one thing in common here at this time, and it’s to eat food. Currently, we haven’t done that, and it’s what I and my friends drove here to do.”

Ryan, English major and all, doesn’t speak _that_ poetically often, so that sentence structure he used had us staring.

The father _walked over to us,_ placed on hand on the table, and looked directly at Brendon. His family was still staring, and stuff was starting to get real.

“Please, sir,” Spencer tried, bless his soul. “All we want is to eat-”

“I appreciate you, but seeing as _he_ -” the father pointed to Brendon. “won't apologize, an issue with my morals has arisen here.”

“And what does someone like _you_ call morals? Being actual robots showing no emotion in public?” Brendon stood to match the father’s eye level, arms crossed and eyebrows arched, and Ryan reached over, trying to make him sit back down in his seat, but it was clear from both of them that they wanted _blood_.

“Dad, _please_ don’t start a fight with a guy in the middle of iHop,” his eldest child pleaded, and I don’t put it past them. I wouldn’t want to see my dad pick fights at iHop either.

“I agree.” his wife called out. “Bill, haven’t these young men convinced you that they mean nothing wrong?”

“Now, Margaret,” he turns towards her. “Most of them have been very kind, but the one hasn’t.”

“And I still don’t see what I did wrong,” Brendon interjected, clearly still mad about what was going on. Good thing Hayley hadn’t asked for our orders yet.

“Young man, this isn’t even about the pet name anymore, it’s about you being rude to me and-”

“Fuck you.”

And that’s when he got punched. Then he fell unconscious.

\--------------------------------------

Luckily, it’s only 9:45, and Brendon’s awake now, he’s pretty mad still, and Ryan, Spencer, and Jon are all huddled around him trying to prevent any more injuries, while I provided them with water and Gatorade.

I know an awkward scene when I see one, and this was one of them, so I called out, “Do you just want me to go McDonald’s and get something from the breakfast menu?”

They all looked at me, and I thought I did something wrong, but then Jon shrugged and said to go ahead. So that’s what I did. Now I don’t know what they would want from there, so I just pulled up in the drive-through and ordered two orders of pancakes, four Egg McMuffins, and a McGriddle. Good thing about fast food employees are that they don’t care if one guy is ordering food for five people.

I get all the food and drove back to Jon’s apartment. Brendon has settled down by now, and we ate our breakfast in silence. Near silence.

“Tyler, on behalf of Brendon, Ryan, Jon, and I, we’d like to say that we had no idea that eating at iHop would lead to _this,_ ” Spencer motioned at the breakfast that we were eating.”

“As much as I hate to say it, I should’ve apologized to the guy,” Brendon sighed. “But still. I don’t care if Ryan’s older, or taller, or more reserved, I am going to stand up for what I think are basic human rights.”

One of the most beautiful things I’ve heard from his mouth. He isn’t the type of person to get all motivational towards us, but it just goes to show that down under that flamboyant, cheery person there’s someone who deeply cares about people.

“You know what this taught me? That friends are amazing things to have and how people suck sometimes,” Jon smiled, taking a sip of his fruit punch Gatorade.

“People can be total asshats,” Spencer smirked.

“Standing up for what you believe in shows how good all of you are,” I nod. Even if we never got to eat our iHop, we still had a great time with each other. It was nice. 

We hugged and then went back to our dorm. What a morning.

\----------------------------------------

It’s almost time for me to go to Josh’s dorm to work on the group project. And I _really_ don’t want to do it.

Brendon’s fully recovered and not mad anymore, him and Ryan listened to some vinyl records and organized the polaroids on our wall by year. Actual relationship goals.

 _And,_ organizing the polaroids makes me not stare at a photo of him now. Now the polaroid I look at is one of Myrtle Beach and it’s actually _really_ pretty and I look forward to staring at it.

Brendon, being Josh’s roommate, gave me some not so useful advice on how to get along with him. I don’t think I’ll ever use it, but I might take on the suggestion of buying Chipotle for him and Debby.

It’s 2:36, and we decided to meet up at his dorm at 3, so I’ve got time to drive to the Chipotle and drive.

I’m gonna stop writing because I don’t want to get sued for writing a journal entry and driving.

\----------------------------------------

Josh and Brendon’s dorm room is pretty wild, a very big contrast from our aubergine walls. It’s got very contrasting colors, band posters, and big round lights instead of our fairy ones. It’s not a bad room, it very much fits the people living in it, but I still prefer the beautiful aubergine.

Debby’s sitting on the floor, organizing papers, and Josh is laying on his bed. 

“So how are we going to do this?” I asked, closing the door behind me, which had another poster on it.

“Josh, how are we going to do this?” Debby echoes, throwing a sheet of paper on Josh’s head.

He just threw the paper back to her and rolled over until he was facing us.

“I don’t know. Debbs, what are the requirements? I didn’t read the paper.”

I walked into the kitchen to set the Chipotle down, before hearing Debby respond.

“‘To create a visually appearing poster graphic that displays one of the basic math concepts that have been taught in the first week of the semester.’ How promising,” she recited, a little sad.

“Um, sorry for interrupting.” I walk back into the room. “But I’m taking Virtual Design, and I can possibly help with that? I also brought some Chipotle.”

So after eating some burritos, we decided on a plan.

I would design the actual poster, Debby would come up with a list of math terms and concepts, and Josh would help decide where all the concepts and terms would go on the poster. Which means that me and Josh would have to take another day to work together. One on one. Me and him, working on this poster.

I _would_ be lying if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to working with him, he’s a really nice human and we need more people like that.

I hung out with Ryan a bit, we watched some Netflix shows and I brought him the leftover Chipotle as if to say thanks for the Naked Chicken Chalupa from yesterday.

We dusted vinyls, changed the needle of his record player, overall it was some good bonding time I had with my roommate. Now it doesn’t feel awkward anymore, considering all the things we’ve experienced together in _three days_.

We even took a nap, from all the spare time we had, and Myrtle Beach is a really soothing thing to look at while trying to nap.

After like 20 minutes of napping, I _swear_ I heard our dorm room door open, and I got really scared, but it was only Brendon. Why he wanted to sneak in our dorm, I have no clue, but I heard the record player turn on. He started singing along to it, and he’s _really_ good at singing too. He sang along, then I heard the fridge open and close, different bottles clinking against each other.

Turns out this guy wanted to cook Ryan (and by extension, me) a decent home made dinner because he felt bad about the iHop incident. At that point, I got up and saw Ryan still napping, but this time he had a blanket draped over him, which was obviously placed there by Brendon.

“Tyler? How do you make spaghetti? I wanna impress Ryan but I can’t really cook,” Brendon spoke softly, which he _never_ does, so you could tell how hard he’s trying for Ryan, and I found that _really darn adorable_.

I helped him make the spaghetti, which turned out _really_ good and also set up our dining table, which basically almost turned the whole thing into the scene from Lady and the Tramp.

“Don’t think I’m proposing, though, Tyler. I’m just being nice to him,” he winked, and I smiled back to him. They are actually really cute.

Ryan enjoyed his spaghetti too. And then we all watched Netflix while eating nachos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope it was good! i didn't want the chapter getting past 3k words so sorry if the group project part seemed a little rushed. let me know if it was alright and joshler is still on its way!


	5. organic smoothies and dating advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm working with Josh. On our project. Which means I can't be a potato napping and moping around our dorm. Man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the 4 day wait! this one is 2k words though, so hopefully it's worth it.
> 
> frerard and petekey aren't dead they will return soon.

February 5th, 2017

 

As okay as Brendon’s spaghetti was yesterday, I don’t want to eat it for breakfast. I believe that pasta is only good the day you make it. Reheated? No. One time I made ramen, and then left it because Maddie wanted help on her homework, and when I came back it was cooled. So I reheated it. And it wasn’t good.

Spencer gave us some Oreos before we left Jon’s apartment, and even if it isn’t the _most_ healthy thing to eat, I guess some Oreos and milk will have to do for breakfast today. I know I won’t be satisfied though, so later before working with Josh I’ll stop by Taco Bell.

Oh wait. I’m working with Josh. On our project. Which means I can’t be a potato today napping and moping around our dorm. Man.

I know some people are going to agonize, but I’m _very_ grateful that Spencer didn’t give us Double Stuf. I would have eaten all of them. And I can’t have that, because those Oreos have too many calories and when Brendon would stop by our dorm demanding some he would have killed me. I don’t want to die this young. Please and thank you.

I _could_ go on a grocery run, but Ryan’s still asleep and who knows what that dude eats.

 _Actually,_ I know who knows what he eats. And he goes by the name of Brendon Urie.

Not calling him though. I don’t want to risk a noise complaint, or waking Ryan up. It would be a lose/lose if I called him. So I will text him.

_what does ryan eat?_

_that’s a strange question there tyler._

_i know it is. just tell me._

_ryan’s a man of many flavors._

_that’s not answering my question sir._

_calm down tyler. get him organic stuff because he’s a lil bitch._

_anything organic?_

He left me on read. That rude forehead. Ryan’s still very much asleep, too. I don’t know if I can get him anything organic. Organic foods are pretty expensive, and what if I get something he’s allergic to and then have to send him to hospital? I don’t want to deal with hospitalized roommates and crazed boyfriends. _Especially_ on a Sunday, a day before we go back for the second week of the semester. Usually the first week of any semester is missable, but never the second. By that point the professors expect you to be ready for hardcore learning. And most of us aren’t ready for hardcore learning.

Now I have to drive to our farmer’s market for food. Great.

 

\--------------------------------------

 

Organic food is _too_ expensive. Next time I go for groceries I’ll take Ryan with me and go to Walmart. We are college students, not office workers. I do not want to spend $5 for half a pound of strawberries. That’s a bit extra for eating organic.

 Ryan’s up and around  now, and with our new organic groceries we made some smoothies. Which weren’t bad at all. They were pretty good. I had strawberry kiwi and Ryan had berry blast. Both recipes we found online. I made one for Josh, too. Because I think he would like them and because I am a _good person._

Apparently Ryan isn’t allergic to any of the food I bought, thank god, and he actually seemed happy that I went out and bought stuff for us. What a good human he is.

I am really satisfied with our smoothies. I don’t even think I need the Taco Bell I was planning to get. I guess organic fruits are _kind of_ worth the expensive cost. I don’t think I will get organic bread or cheese again. Those aren’t really worth the extra money. Ryan likes cheese spread on bread, so it works out for him. I will continue the fruit buying because those smoothies would great and I want them more in my life.

Brendon even stopped by for one too, and he was worshipping me and begging for forgiveness for leaving me on read earlier because his advice had never tasted so _good_. I felt really proud in that moment, getting apologized to by Brendon Urie. Ryan just walked away with his smoothie and locked his door.

“No! Ryan, baby it’s okay! I love you, _please come back_ ,” Brendon kept on banging on Ryan’s door, some of the polaroids hung on the wall were threatening to fall to the ground, meanwhile he was collapsed against the floor, trying to look under the door.

Ryan sighed, a really loud one that kind of scared me. The lock on the door unlocked, and Brendon scrambled to his feet, desperately trying to pull himself together, straightening his shirt.

He came out of his room, not before Brendon jumped him, sending them both to the floor. Then I sighed loudly. Ryan looked at me with a ‘What the heck is going on?’ face and I just shrugged at him, because _I_ was the third wheel here and not collapsed under Brendon Urie.

“I’m so _sorry,_ RyRo! I just had to apologize because I left him on read earlier when all he wanted was to buy you food! And then I didn’t answer him, and left to hang with Dallon and Josh, and-”

Brendon tried to help Ryan up off the floor, and got a pat on the head for it.

“I wanted to go get the polaroid camera. Tyler deserves a place on our walls for all he’s had to deal with us for five days,” he turned around, the polaroid camera visible from where we all were.

The situation screamed awkward, Brendon just stood there in shock while Ryan continued to sip his smoothie. So me, being a good person, went over to the polaroid camera, first snapping a photo of them because the clear confusion on both of them was too good not to immortalize. Then I took a photo of myself with my smoothie, grabbed some thumbtacks from Ryan’s desk, and pinned them to the wall. 

I think I did something good today.

 

\----------------------------------------

 

Josh came by to start working on the poster. While I was napping, which was great.

Turns out, this guy stared at me napping. Which would be _e_ _xtremely_ creepy if it was someone else. I woke up from my nap, and Josh, being the guy he is, said:

“You’re a cute napper. Wanna be nap buddies?”

Nap Buddies with Joshua William Dun. That sounds like a pretty fancy title to be honest. Maybe I’ll commission Gerard to design a business card with it. I think he would have a good time designing it. I would actually use that business card and put that title on a resume.

“Uh, whatever you want, I guess,” I shrug, guiding him to the kitchen. “Ryan and I made smoothies earlier. Want one?”

His eyes lit up and he gasped. “Smoothies? Yeah, I want one.”

“There’s strawberry kiwi, berry blast, and watermelon. Pick what you like,” I tell him, and he immediately went after the strawberry kiwi. Good minds think alike I guess.

“Alright, Josh. What math concepts did Debby come up with?” I asked him, and he looks up at me while slurping his smoothie. He then reached into his back pocket and handed me a folded piece of paper. I opened it, and it had some of the math concepts that she said she would draft up.

I go into Ryan’s room to get a piece of copy paper from him, and I set it out along with a pencil and eraser in front of Josh.

“I kind of wanted to do something simplistic yet eye catching,” I told him, although it seemed more of a question than a statement. He kept on looking at me, before finishing his smoothie and setting it down.

“That sounds good, but I think I trust your tastes in art more than mine,” he smiles, folding his arms, and adjusting his snapback hat.

“Thank you? Anyways, what do you consider simplistic?” I ask him, lightly tapping my pencil against the desk.

“Rounded font with like two different colors,” Josh took the piece of paper and drew me an example of what he meant. It did look good, not too extravagant but the color gave it personality. I liked it.

“That’s looking really good Josh,” I tell him, reaching over behind me to grab another smoothie because he keeps on drinking his and making me want more.

He just shrugs, and continued to add to the poster, basically doing my job. I don’t care by this point. Josh seemed to be having a good time doing it, his tongue poking out in concentration, lightly cussing himself out when he messed up a pencil stroke and then angrily erasing. It was cute. Him working on the poster.

When Josh finished, he set his pencil down and flipped the paper so it faced me. There were the concepts that Debby drew up, with added notes like “Use red and black for colors.” or “Make this bigger in final.” I really liked it.

“Is it good enough?” Josh asked, looking a bit concerned when I didn’t answer him for a while. I didn’t answer because I was in awe, okay? I don’t hate him.

“It’s amazing, to be honest,” I reassure him, because it _was_ really good and this poor dude thought I hated it. I don’t. It’s simplistic yet effective and to the point. I wonder what he majored in.

His phone beeps, and he took it out of his pocket, squinting at the screen before setting it down sadly.

“I would really love to hang out more, but my sister Ashley just begged to go watch a movie together, so maybe to make up I’ll take you somewhere? Maybe like for ice cream?” Josh started to get out of his seat, before giving me a quick hug, I’m still sitting down trying to understand what was going on. Then he left. And my phone beeped.

_super sorry that i had to bail like that. hmu later so we can go for ice cream. it’s a date._

Now I don’t know how humans work, but either he asked me on a date to ice cream, he affirmed that yes our ice cream was a date, or he just said that our ice cream was going to be on a date. They all sound scary, and I don’t know how to go on dates. Was it a date? Or is it two guys going for ice cream?

I don’t know, and now I’m quite scared. I guess I’ll ask Ryan for advice.

 

\----------------------------------------

 

I asked Ryan for advice. And now I don’t know what to think.

-don’t fake it. people don’t like that.

-wear something fancy, but casual.

-according to brendon, the sexiest thing is pet names.

-probably don’t do that one.

-josh is into classic nintendo. think smash bros and mario kart

-try not to fail.

It is some decent advice, maybe I’ll follow them. Definitely going to try not to fail. I also don’t think me and Josh are at pet name level yet. I know Debby calls him Joshie, but what does that leave me? How do I come up with a good pet name?

Jishwa. There. He will be known as Jishwa.

I’m going to go to bed. We still haven’t decided on a certain day for the ice cream though, and both Ryan and Brendon have declared themselves my dating mentors, with two different stories.

Ryan’s was, “Spencer set me up with Brendon. I didn’t want to go on a date with him. I thought he was too outgoing and too over the top for me.”

Brendon’s was, “Ryan was the weird kid that no one liked but me. And Spencer did too, I guess. And then we became really good friends and started dating.”

He also told me that Josh always starts to smile when he brings me up in conversation, which like, what? What did I, Tyler Joseph, do to make this dude have interest in me?

Brendon just shrugged, “Sometimes people come along and you just feel tied to them. Like it should be you that’s with them. I know I felt like that with Ryan. Maybe Josh feels like he needs to be with you.”

Which, in all honesty, was cute, and mortifying.

I don’t see myself as special at all, I’m just a 20 year old college freshman who wanders through life who made friends with two of the craziest people I’ve ever seen. I’ve only known Josh for a total of five days, and we have a sort of date planned. It’s crazy, it’s wild, but I’m happy with myself.

I can go on a date with Josh Dun. And I’ll have a good time, too. Josh and I will have a great time, and I don't mind if we start dating.

~~Because he's really cute and I would want to be with him.~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> joshler is sailing soon and i can't wait.
> 
> much thanks for almost 300 hits im still shook people would want to read this.
> 
> let me know if you liked it and next chap should be up sooner.


	6. pranking friends and double dates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But obviously, the universe gave me the most eccentric guy I've ever met, who decided that texting me at 6 a.m. is the normal thing to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy april fools! coincidentally half of this chapter is about pulling a prank on someone, and its great that this did manage to get out on april 1st. even if ao3 says its the 2nd.
> 
> (much thanks for all the love this has gotten im so happy)

February 6th, 2017

 

I’ve always had trouble falling asleep on Sundays. I don’t know why. There’s nothing  _wrong_ with Sundays, they just seem really slow paced and I can’t sleep. I tried staring at the Myrtle Beach polaroid, scrolling through YouTube, getting up for milk, and none of them worked. I even snuck over to Ryan’s record player and played Abbey Road by The Beatles. He was already sleeping, so I quickly turned it off and went back to bed.

After a good while of staring at my ceiling, I finally fell asleep. I slept really well last night, which was ironic considering all the struggle it took to start to fall asleep.

It’s barely the second week of the semester, and I want to drop dead.

Mondays are not only one of the worst days of the week, but I don’t know if I can handle writing one entry every single day for five months. Jenna will probably murder me if I ever stop, with her saying that the entries ‘make me feel as if I'm there with you’. But sometimes life isn’t too interesting to write about.

But obviously, the universe gave me the most eccentric guy I’ve ever met, who decided that texting me at 6 a.m. is the normal thing to do. So maybe I guess I won’t run out of things to write about.

_yo tyjo you up? because i wanna prank dallon._

_why. especially at six in the morning._

_because he called me short._

It’s the logic that Brendon holds, and I was having trouble sleeping anyway, so I agreed. Dallon is a really nice guy, he agreed to give me bass lessons that I was really hyped about, but life is supposed to be about ‘taking risks’ and ‘thrill-seeking’, right? Brendon said he would come by our dorm in a few, and while I waited for him to arrive I ate some waffles. Great.

“Psst,” Brendon snuck in my dorm, wrapped in a blanket and with a framed photo in his hands.

I guess my face scrunched up in confusion, because he put the frame down and sat next to me. The blanket he was wrapped in was zebra print, and he carefully took it off himself and folded it.

“What are you planning to do?” I ask him, eyeing the blanket and the framed photo. His face lit up, that sneaky glow that  _shouldn’t_ be there at six in the morning was there, and that was when I knew, that something bad was going to happen, and my name will go along with it.

“So I’ve known Dallon for a while now,” he began, setting his hand on the framed photo. The way he was acting towards the photo was a little cautious, as if somehow if he held it too hard it would shatter. “And, when I hung out with him yesterday, he made fun of my height. And I took that the wrong way. He has no right to comment on my height because he isn’t exactly average either.”

Which was true. Dallon is a tall human, around 6’4, when the average is near Brendon’s height, 5’9. There’s nothing  _wrong_ with being that height, I know I’m average height, but I don’t really care about my height anymore. I grew out of it once I started playing basketball.

“What are you planning to do then?” I asked him, fumbling with my hoodie. I was sort of scared at this point because I could see the  _murder_ in Brendon’s eyes, and I felt like this was going to be another iHop situation, but this time I was his wingman, and Dallon wouldn’t be able to gather the strength to actually punch him. At least no one was getting punched. But then, his smirk got wider, and that was when I knew, this was going downhill.

“Tell him that I dumped Ryan.”

He said it so casually, and that sort of made me scared. I guess he picked up on that because he continued.

" _Obviously_ I’m not going to actually dump him, I would  _never,_ ” he scoffed, rolling his eyes playfully.  “I’m just gonna show up to Dallon’s, crying, holding the frame and with the blanket. Your job is to make sure Ryan doesn’t wake up and to help me sell the lie to him.”

He then went on his phone, and started playing a song, and very questionably started crying almost immediately. Then he stood up, covered himself back in the blanket, grabbed the frame, and ran out of my dorm.

Dallon lives down my hallway, so he didn’t have to run too far, but still I kept the dorm door open to try to hear all of the things that were going to go down soon. There was a soft knock, and the door creaked open.

“Bren?” Dallon asked groggily. “Why are you up so early- _What happened???_ ”

Brendon sniffled, clearly keeping up the crying act. How he was still crying after the song stopped playing, who knows, but it was working.

“‘’M sorry, but I needed someone to talk to.”

I peeked around the corner of our doorframe, and I couldn’t see Dallon, but Brendon looked pretty beat up, and it was _very_ believable.

“Then why don’t you talk to Ryan about it?” It was clear from his voice that he was confused. At this point, Brendon started crying even harder, and poor Dallon probably had no idea how to comfort him. Not going to lie, but Brendon’s a pretty good actor.

“I kinda broke it off with him, Dal, please don’t mention this to anyone.” At this point, Dallon finally stepped out into the hallway and reached out to pull Brendon, blanket and photo frame too, in a hug.

“I won’t, okay? It’s going to be fine, does your family know?” he asked, and there was when I saw that Dallon Weekes was a good friend and that if this continued even further, he would start thinking that Ryan did something bad to Brendon, when actually Ryan was sleeping in his bed. I ran to the hallway, pretending to go to the elevator when Dallon saw me. Oh, no.

“Tyler? You’re roommates with Ryan, right? What happened?”

I turned around and seeing Dallon all confused made me feel really guilty.

“He didn’t tell me anything,” I told him, trying to salvage this because I didn’t want him to hate me for all eternity.

Brendon just cried silently, while Dallon pats his back. “Whatever happened for you to cut it off, Bren, maybe it’s for the best that you did.”

He stopped crying and threw his photo frame on the floor, the glass shattering. Dallon rushed to pick up the photo and to make sure no one was stepping on any glass shards. The photo was of him and Ryan at the coastline, holding hands and walking along the edge of the water. Once the photo was back in his hands, he started caressing it, scared.

“I didn’t mean to throw it Dallon! I don’t know what I’m doing,” he admits, and Dallon looked ready to start crying too, which was when Brendon cleared his throat.

“I don’t know what I’m doing  _because_ ,” he began, stretching out the ‘because’. “Surprise, surprise, nothing happened! Get _rekt_.” He blew a kiss, and walked back to his dorm.

Dallon kept on staring at me, before facepalming and entering his own dorm. Then my phone vibrated.

_that was AMAZING. he fell for it so hard it was beautiful._

It was pretty funny, but Dallon was so concerned for him and it made me feel really bad.

Ryan’s still asleep, it’s 6:45, and I would like to go back to bed.

 

\------------------------------------

 

I did manage to sleep well again, and the good news is that Ryan is wide awake and has no idea what went on earlier with Brendon pretending to have dumped him.

I went down to Music Theory earlier than usual, and while trying to enter the classroom, someone grabbed my hand and pulled me into the janitor’s closet. I was about to scream before the person put their hand over my mouth and shushed me.

“Shh! People are gonna think I’m planning to murder you,” the figure told me, very sternly. They then removed their hand from my mouth and lowered their hoodie. I’ve never seen the guy before, and he was definitely giving off the sneaky murderer vibes. He was a bit shorter than me, and a whole lot scarier.

“Anyways, do you know Gerard?” he asked. I nodded.

“Great. I need you at our double date later,” he said, and what? I remember Gerard talking to Frank about a double date with Mikey and Pete, but I’m not even dating anyone? And this guy wants me at his and Gerard’s double date?

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to get murdered by Mikey for not getting along with Gee.” So this was the infamous Pete Wentz that was standing here in front of me. Asking me to go along with him. On a double date with his boyfriend’s brother.

He then scribbled his phone number on my hand and walked out the closet.

 

\----------------------------------

 

I added his phone number to my contacts, and texted it because Pete said their date was ‘later’ and by all definitions, ‘later’ means five hours after he told me about it.

_when/where’s your date?_

_8:30 at gee’s dorm._

He then told me where Gerard’s dorm is, and I prepared to fifth wheel on a double date. It was going to be pretty miserable, but I know Gerard pretty well and have at least interacted with Frank and Pete. I don’t know about Mikey. Guess I’ll find out.

 

\--------------------------------

 

When Gerard told me he had all of the Copic Markers, I didn’t really believe him. Now I do.

I walked into his dorm, and I see four guys all spread around the room, and there’s a mountain of grey markers in the middle of them, and huge shipping boxes by every one of them.

“Tyler?” Gerard asked, dropping the marker he was holding.

“Hi.”

So I sat down at the only open area available, and Gerard explained just how to refill a marker. You take off both caps, refill on the chisel tip of the marker, and use about 2.5 milliliters of the refill ink.

What is up with these color names, though? 'Pale Thistle'? 'Various Pistachio'? 'Bougainvillaea'? Who has the time to come up with an original name for 358 different shades of marker? And who has the time to sit down and refill all of their dead ones?

“Mikey? Can you find me the RV55 ‘Hollyhock’?” Frank asked, holding up a refill bottle that I’m assuming was RV55 'Hollyhock'.

“Sorry Frank, all I have around me are the YRs and the BVs,” Mikey shrugged.

I had no real problem finding the markers I needed for the bottles. I would get a refill from the box, like YG97 ‘Spanish Olive’, and then go in search for all the YGs I could find.

Gerard, meanwhile, was a pro, easily refilling the most out of all of us, having collected a mountain of his own that were markers he’d already refilled.

Good thing Pete Wentz didn’t try to chew any markers and Mikey did refill some too. They’re pretty laid back. Good times we had refilling these markers.

I even convinced Gerard to give me a marker, and I picked V99 ‘Aubergine’. It reminded me of my dorm room.

Now the marker is on display in my room, and it looks pretty cool. I don’t think I’ll ever buy the rest of the 358 colors but maybe I’ll buy a few sometimes.

Also, in Math, Josh gave me an actual hug. And I enjoyed every second of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> copic markers give me life i live for the wacky names most of them have. the joshler date is coming, i just wanted mikey and pete to make an appearance. 
> 
> (also all of the copic names i mentioned do exist. i didn't make any of them up. even the bougainvillaea.)


	7. sitting by lakes and keeping company

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I have to destress. You’re driving. I don’t trust myself right now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's a bit more serious than the others, but i like it either way.
> 
> sorry for the absence i had no computer access.
> 
> edit: rewrote the ending of this chapter. i much prefer it now. it's also fluffier than the original :)

February 7th, 2017

 

Tuesdays are pretty boring. Usually.

My Tuesdays, like the rest of my weekdays, are never boring. After discovering and befriending Brendon Urie, I don’t think they will ever be boring again.

He told me that when I was refilling markers with Gerard, Ryan took him out to see Moana. And that the movie had him in tears, and how he almost picked a fight with a 6 year old over whether they liked Pua the Pig or Hei Hei the Rooster better. Brendon is a Hei Hei stan apparently.

I woke up to screaming today. And I don’t want to wake up to screaming again. It was scary.

“You did _what_?!”

“‘M sorry! I just wanted to get revenge on him!”

“By telling him that you dumped my ass?!”

“How else was I supposed to do it?”

“Maybe you could have, I don’t know, _not tell him that we broke up?”_

Then our dorm room grew quiet again. So I went to our kitchen to eat some breakfast seeing as it was nearly time for Music Theory and I also didn’t want to appear too nosy listening in on Ryan and Brendon’s argument over the prank from yesterday.

\----------------------------

In Music Theory, I sat next to Patrick because Brendon has beef with me, I guess.

Patrick’s really nice, he kept on teaching me proper piano playing techniques whenever I would not have my fingers in the proper position and overall I had some good times doing piano with him.

I’ve never really taken the chance to talk music with him, but he’s really talented and I appreciate him taking the time to help me with piano playing.

\----------------------------

Gerard finally let me use his Copics. After me having to look at them and refill them, I finally got to use them. And it was pretty wild.

He handed me a piece of really thick cardstock, which is called ‘X-Press It Blending Card’, and a black liner pen.

I doodled a mountain, and picked a marker, C3 ‘Cool Gray’, and used it. The brush nib of the marker feels just like a paintbrush and it colors so neatly. Again, I probably won’t invest in all of the colors, but from my small taste of these markers, I’m liking them a lot. I still only have the V99 that he gave me, but maybe sometime later this week I’ll stop by Michael’s and buy a few.

\---------------------------

After Math, I went back to my dorm room.

I was deep in thought, because Josh had asked me about the ice cream date, and I hesitantly told him that I was free tomorrow. Good thing I did, because I definitely wasn’t able to go today.

When I walked in the dorm room, Ryan stood up, grabbed my wrist, and led me right back out.

“I have to destress. You’re driving. I don’t trust myself right now.”

I just nodded, and let him take me to his car, where he plopped in the shotgun seat, which meant that he was really serious when he told me I was going to be driving.

Making sure he had his seatbelt on and was secure, I started the car, and began driving away from campus.

“Sorry for the sudden trip. I just want to take photos of nature and relax,” he mumbles, setting up his DSLR camera.

“I understand,” I nod. “Where to, though?”

“Preferably a lake or the park.”

The nearest lake that I knew of was a half hour away. But I still drove to it.

“ _Three new messages from, Brendon. Shall I read them?”_ I guess Ryan set up his car to read him text messages while he drove. At least he was taking precaution in his daily life.

Ryan sighed, before saying, “Yes”.

“ _WHERE ARE YOU_.”

“ _ARE YOU OKAY?”_

“ _DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG AGAIN?_ ”

You could tell that Brendon was really concerned through the texts, but then the voice assistant spoke again.

“ _Do you want to respond?_ ”

"Yes. I’m fine, just heading towards the lake. Grey,” Ryan says, setting down his camera.

I looked at him, confused, before quickly turning back towards the road. “Grey?”

“Spencer and I came up with a color secret code when we were in 3rd grade. Different colors mean different things. Eventually, we told Brendon about it, too. Grey means ‘safe’,” he shrugs.

After more silence, we eventually arrived to the lake. The sun was about to set, and it did look really pretty and calming. I could see why Ryan likes to go out and photograph stuff when he’s stressed. I followed him as he went around, taking pictures of the trees and of the birds.

He looked so at peace going around the lake taking photos, and it made me question what exactly got him so stressed in the first place.

Eventually, he sat down in front of the lake, and I sat beside him.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?” I ask him, gently.

Ryan’s eyebrows furrowed, before taking in a deep breath. “College professors can be assholes. Mine don’t care about me, for example. They want what’s best for them, not for the student. They believe themselves to be better than anyone else when actually they aren’t. They critique photos based on the photographer and not the photo itself.”

It sounded like he was having tough times in his classes, which explained why he arrived nearly dead from exhaustion every day.

“Mentors want what’s best for you,” I said, patting him on the back. “They say things that push your buttons because they want you to use that negative energy to better yourself as a person or in your craft.”

I never knew I could be reassuring like that because Ryan smiled at me. “Thanks, Tyler.”

He then showed me some photos he took right now, and they were really pleasing. Ryan seemed happier now too, which was good, so the lake trip had really done him good. But then, it didn’t.

“You know, Tyler, Brendon and I really _do_ care about each other. It’s just that sometimes I get too stressed and I have to have my own alone time,” he stared out into the lake, slight frown on his face. “It’s not even his fault most of the time, I just make it out to seem that way. I make him feel like he fucked up, when all he was trying to do was to help out,” he admits, tossing a nearby rock in the lake.

Ryan sounded really broken up about it, and it was really sad to see him like that.

“Don’t beat yourself up for it,” I tell him. “We’re human, we make mistakes. When put under pressure, we either break or we run. Sometimes we do both. But it doesn’t make you any less of a human than someone else.”

He closed his eyes. “You should really look into motivational speaking. Or lyric writing.”

I chuckle at him, “No one would listen to my music.”

“Someone will. That’s how musicians get their start.”

I shrug at him, looking back into the lake. The sun was almost fully set, and it was eerily peaceful. Just Ryan and I sitting by the lake shore, surrounded by nature.

He then got up to go back to his car, and I followed.

Ryan drove this time.

\----------------------------------

Today was pretty crazy, but it was nice having that time alone at the lake. It gave me time to think about life in general.

Josh and I’s ‘date’ is tomorrow, and I’m pretty excited. I think we’re going to have a good time eating ice cream. 

I started planning it out with him, it's going pretty smoothly if I do say so myself. We decided that beforehand, we would go out to a movie, and after that we would get ice cream and/or tacos.

I much prefer the idea of ice cream, but if he wants tacos then we'll get tacos. I'm a gentleman who will allow his date to decide what to eat. At least that's what I was told to do by Ryan.

He and Brendon sorted things out when we got back frok the lake, I got a clap from Brendon for making sufe that he was safe, and I just smiled at him.

Then I got to tell them about our date tomorrow, and they were really proud of me? I didn't know whether to be proud of myself or ashamed, but Brendon's face made it seem like I should be proud.

"Joshler is setting sail! Aw, Ryan, our baby boy is growing up!" Brendon cooed, draping himself over me.

"Please don't call him our baby boy," Ryan groaned.

I laughed, before saying goodnight to them and headed back to my room to get some sleep for tomorrow because I know I'm going to need it for the date.

Wishing for the best, obviously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the joshler date is near, and it's gonna be way fluffier than this chapter.
> 
> the idea of ryan and tyler contemplating life by a lake is soothing. who knows why.
> 
> let me know if the rewrite was better, and much thanks for all the love this fic has gotten! nearly 550 hits wow.


	8. lemon sherbet and button-downs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soon, I arrived to his door, and after a few deep breaths, I knocked. Once, twice, Josh opened on the third. And, oh man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its's here! the joshler date has arrived.
> 
> hopefully it's long enough, i couldn't check ://
> 
> also much thanks??? nearly 50 kudos and 680 hits thats so many people

February 8th, 2017

 

"Rise and shine, little one!" Brendon shoved me off my bed, it was too early in the morning, and I fell to the floor with a 'thud'.

"Ow."

Brendon giggled, an actual giggle, before helping me up. "Ty, you can't have already forgotton about your date with Josh today."

"But my date with Josh is later, and there's class today," I deadpan, and the infamous smirk grew on his face.

"As your Offical Date Planner, I called ahead and excused both of us from class today. Y'know, to make sure you're all put together today." The fact he did that blew my mind, because as helpful as he's trying to be, somehow it's going to go wrong anyway.

"Now, your date is at around 5, right?" I nod.

He smiled. "Great. That means I have half a day to prepare you." Half a day meant twelve hours. Which means that he woke me up at 5 a.m. The jerk.

"What about Ryan?" I asked him. Because so far there has been zero mention of him. It _was_ 5 a.m., but if Brendon was at our dorm, there's no reason for him to still be asleep.

"Oh, him? He's _fine_ ," Brendon reassured me. "He's just chilling with Josh and Dallon to try to get to know them better." Why he would be hanging out with them this early, I don't know.

Brendon then went to my closet, and dramatically opened it, letting out an even more dramatic sigh once he saw what was in it. "Really? No animal print? Shame on you, Tyler Joseph. How do you _sleep_ at night?"

"Animal print is tacky, don't judge me for my normal wardrobe," I patted his back. Brendon was the king of animal print, and he could wear it well, it's definitely not for me though.

"Fine, then. No wearing your kimono."

I feel like I can make fun of him all I want, but he just hated on my kimono. My beautiful, floral, pleasing kimono. Hated on, by Brendon 'Leopard Print' Urie.

I guess he noticed the big frown on my face because he smiled sheepishly and slowly backed away. "Not that there's anything wrong with your kimono! You just gotta spice up your outfit from time to time," Brendon said, throwing a blue button-down at me.

Deciding that this was the best it was going to get, I set the shirt down and grabbed a pair of black jeans before ushering Brendon out of my room.

I did look decent, so Brendon had done something good today. Shame it was still only 5 a.m. and there was still hours until my date.

"Ty, you look so fresh! Now sit, I have some good insider's info on our boy, Josh Dun," he patted the chair next to him, happily scrolling on his phone. There was something sketchy going on, and I sat down next to him carefully.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. "Chill, I'm not going to murder you. Ryan's playing undercover detective for me so we can help your ass land a good date."

"Anyways, here you go," Brendon handed his phone to me, and he had his texts with Ryan opened, and there were a few from today.

_he seems really nice. gives off good vibes._

_his favorite ice cream flavor is lemon sherbet._

"Useful information," I shrug. I don't see why Brendon had this whole plan to gouge out details about Josh, even going as far as to send Ryan over to them. Still very sketchy.

\-----------------------------------

Ryan's come back for a little bit, lounging around in our dorm before having to leave for his classes. Not before Brendon saying his deepest farewells.

"Sayonara, Ry! I'll keep you updated on our son and his date," Brendon winked, handing Ryan a thermos and kissed him on the cheek.

He left, closing the door, and Brendon turned back to me. "So, TyJo, seeing as we got the looks, now it's time to hit the books!"

Brendon laughed at his own rhyme, before sitting us down at the dinner table. He handed me a glass of water, smiling. "This is prep for later, okay?"

I nodded, the atmosphere felt weirdly calming for me being on a pretend date with Brendon. He seemed to know what he was doing, which is great for me because I don't know what I'm doing. "So what do I do?" I asked him.

He slightly frowned, setting his glass of water down. "Depends on the person." Well, that didn't help my anxiety.

"The thing is, you think you know how someone will act, but then they pull a 180 on you," Brendon took another sip of his water, smiling at me to try and loosen me up. Which kind of worked; I smiled back.

"Example: Ryan Ross. When I met him, he had this whole 'bad boy' thing going on," Brendon made air quotes around the 'bad boy', but his big smile was present while he did so. Also, Ryan as a bad boy? Wow. What Brendon said about people changing is true.

"But this closed off, possesive, emo teeenager, _totally_ blushed his head off when I guided him to his seat in a fancy restaurant."

Brendon began telling me in lengthy detail about his and Ryan's first few dates, and I'll admit, it was cute to hear him retell their history. I added some extra commentary, and it made us smile evem wider, so I guess that our 'fake date' was a success.

\--------------------------------

After a lot of mental preparation, a few slaps from Brendon and a thumbs up from Ryan, I left my dorm room to go to Josh's.

I looked pretty nice in my button-down/jeans combo, the fake date I had with Brendon definitely helped out a lot too, suprisingly. Ryan gave me a short but sweet pep-talk on how I should be myself and to be optimistic.

I thanked them for their efforts, because Brendon ditched classes for this and Ryan woke up at 5 to talk to Josh. Ryan also looked much less stressed when he came back from classes, which means my help from yesterday had an effect on him. I feel proud.

Soon, I arrived to his door, and after a few deep breaths, I knocked. Once, twice, Josh opened on the third. And, oh man.

He was wearing his usual short sleeved flannel/t-shirt combo, but it was a new one and it suited him well. The Doc Martens he had caught my eye, as well as the new grey snapback. He looked _good_.

"You look nice," I tell him. He smiled.

"You too! You ready?" he asks me, closing his dorm door.

I nod to him, before we set out to leave the dorms. "So, Tyler. Ty? Are we on nickname level yet?" Remembering Brendon's advice from a few days ago about pet names, I smiled at him.

"Ty's fine. Brendon sometimes calls me TyJo," I said. "Only if I can call you Jishwa."

His face lit up. "Oh, cool! No one's called me Jishwa, but I like the sound of it. Thanks, TyJo." Josh looked so happy at his new nickname, ~~and I think I'm falling in too deep~~.

\-------------------------------

It's several hours later, around 8 p.m., and I'm at my dorm now, but I was too caught up in the date with Josh to live-write it on my phone.

Jenna, are you proud? I hope you can meet him someday, he's an actual ray of sunshine.

For a quick recap of our date:

-We didn't go to a movie because we didn't realise that all the decent ones release on Friday. 

-Rather, we went to Taco Bell, which I was _very_ hyped for.

-We played a game of 20 Questions to get to know each other, and nearly got kicked out from all of our laughing. It was beautiful.

-I got to order him lemon sherbet ice cream when we went to Coldstone afterwards, and his smile when I ordered it for him was so big it made me die inside.

-When the date ended, we high-fived.

Josh texted me after I dropped him off, and I'm still scarred.

_had a great time! wow we need to do that again i've never laughed so hard. see you in math :)_

So this isn't a one time thing. I showed Brendon the text he sent me, and he fainted.

"Operation: Joshler was a success! I guess you have to start hanging with him more. Who knows, what if my roommate and my boyfriend's roommate hook up and have good times? Oh my gosh, dude, Joshler babies! I'll start preparing, this is-"

I began to block him out, he's a good person but he began to get a bit annoying after a bit. I guess Ryan did too, because he slapped Brendon right across the face and led him out the dorm by his ear. 

Life's been great, I'm amazed at how wild it has been, but I am kind of looking foward to the next Joshler date. Brendon's starting to rub off on me, oh no.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if the date part seems rushed, considering it's their first i wanted to spend more time on the preparation.
> 
> their future ones will be more exciting, don't worry ;)
> 
> ps i think updates are gonna be every saturday at around 10 to 11 p.m. mst. even if ao3 says its the day after.


	9. fifty shades darker and ukulele lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today, a Thursday, was pretty normal. Strange, I know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i basically winged this chapter i had no real plans for it. i still really liked how it turned out!
> 
> pretty normal in the beginning, it gets silly later on

February 9th, 2017

 

One week of classes done. One. Week. I still can't believe that. So much has happened in this one week that I don't even know if I can continue to live a normal life anymore.

Who can go back to a normal life after all of this? I've seen people getting punched at iHop, went on a double date and an actual date, drove to a lake, and so many other crazy things that I've grown to accept that my life is wild. 

Today, a Thursday, was pretty normal. Strange, I know. 

Not much can happen on a Thursday. I think we all have that one day of the week where we're super unproductive and just lay down procrastinating until the day ends. Most people's lazy day is Saturday, mine is any day. And this time, it's today. 

I woke up way earlier than I usually do for classes, about 2 hours earlier, but I liked it. It was so early that it seemed like the world stopped around me. No one else was awake, so I made myself a coffee and chilled on our couch in a blanket. 

Pretty sure that I would have instantly fell back asleep on the couch if I didn't have the coffee with me. Yay for caffeine. 

My mom bought me a ukulele to celebrate me staying in college for longer than a day, and it should be arriving soon, and I'm pretty happy. Apparently, Dallon knows how to play ukulele too, which gives me double the reason to hang out with him. 

Even with all I said about today being my lazy day, deep down I want to be productive and spend my day doing things that aren't sitting down and napping. I really do want to break my procrastination habit. 

So there. Other than classes, I have something to do. I can ask Dallon for bass amd ukulele lessons and it gives me a chance to talk to him more. He's really good friends with Josh too, so maybe being friends with Josh's friends will help me know him better.

\------------------------------------

I don't have Dallon's number.

I was so ready to text him and beg for lessons before stopping and realizing that I've only ever spoken like 10 words to him in the week that I've known him.

Brendon has his number, and so does Josh, but I think I need to tell him face to face considering that the prank Brendon pulled also involved me in it and how on my first day I nearly ran him over. Let's just say that my friendship with him is a bit rocky. 

People have been starting to wake up now, the city outside campus slowly buzzing to life. I'm still huddled on the couch, coffee mug empty. Ryan's door slowly opened, and he poked his head out the door frame. "Who died?" he asked, and I laughed.

"No one. It's 5:30 though," I said, and Ryan let out a sigh. 

"At least no one's dead," he shrugged, stepping out of his room and into the kitchen. His first class was pretty soon, so I guess he went to go eat some breakfast to get ready.

I can predict the future apparently, because our toaster went off soon after with a very loud 'chink'. Either he was making our classic, Eggo waffles, or he was making toast with organic bread and using organic cheese spread. That I bought for him. 

Either one, the smell of toasted bread was weirdly calming, and soon I found myself walking to the kitchen for some waffles of my own. 

Ryan was sitting at our dining table, writing in a mini journal with his plate of toast with cheese next to him. Considering the English major, he was bound to be writing a lot, so I just brushed it off and prepared some Eggos. 

It's subtle things that people do that gives you the biggest picture of how someone acts. Like how when Ryan writes, his foot taps a slow little 1-2-1-2 rhythm on the floor. 

We ate our breakfast in silence, before Ryan got up and excused himself so he could leave for his classes. I waved at him, and he waved back, smiling before leaving our dorm. My first class is coming up in like 4 hours, the caffeine is still buzzing in me, but I'm going to go try to sleep anyway.

\----------------------------------

"So, TyJo," Brendon began, wiggling his eyebrows. His brows are so bushy. They look like dancing caterpillars on his face. "When's the next Joshler date?" 

I shrugged at him. "Who knows." 

Brendon's devil smirk appeared on his face as he took out his phone. I started praying at that moment because the smirk is a clear sign that something shady is going to happen and-

"Bingo!" Brendon stood up and cheered, and all the people in Music Theory began staring at us. He sheepishly sat back down at his seat and squealed.

"The next Joshler date is tomorrow," he winked, amd I facepalmed. I liked spending time with Josh, but if we were going to hang out again, I would like to ask him myself. 

" _And_ , it's not just a Joshler date, no sir. It's a Joshler and Ryden double date!" he pulled me into a tight hug, I don't know why, but he seemed to be very happy about it, so I let him hug me.

"That's...great?" I said, before Brendon pulled away from me. 

"I know! I'll work out the details with him and Ryan later, but it's gonna be lit, I promise," Brendon crossed his heart. Huh. From my fifth wheel experience with Gerard, Mikey, Pete and Frank, double dates seem to be too awkward and too much stress. 

But Brendon seemed to be determined to hook me up with Josh, and a Friday night double date seems pretty cool. We can even go watch a movie like we were supposed too on our first date. A lot of them release tomorrow. 

"I'll do it," I tell him, and he nearly died frm excitement. "One thing through, can I have Dallon's number? I heard he can play the ukulele and I want lessons? If that's too much to ask for?" 

"No problem," Brendon scribbled Dallon's number on my arm, taking a whiff of his Sharpie before capping it. 

We turned back to the lesson, and now I've been roped into another date with Josh Dun. Great. 

\--------------------------------

I sat next to Gerard in Virtual Design, and I felt bad because me putting my bag down scared him, causing a stray line in his art. 

"Don't feel bad," he looked up at me. "There's a reason why whiteout was invented; it's because we suck at art." That sounds like an overdramatic song title. I'd buy the song. 

I apologized still, because I felt bad for him having to redo some of the line art because I can't set my bag down softly. 

The Virtual Design professor is finally starting to apply the 'Virtual' part of 'Virtual Design' now that we've started to grow comfortable in his class. They made Photoshop access a mandatory class requirement. Which forced me into getting it and Lightroom in a bundle. 

Gerard uses Clip Studio Paint, and the professor shrugged and said that if it made digital art up to his standards, he would allow it. Which forced a student to stop using MS Paint. 

Honestly, that professor is just a stuck up human that takes his job too seriously. 

\-------------------------------

"Did Brendon tell you?"

It's Math now, Josh sat by me again, and he doesn't know about me sharing Music Theory with Brendon. He's been asking if I knew about the double date for a little bit, but I just trued to stay dumb. 

"Tell me about what?" I lied, and I felt bad for lying about knowing but if we were going to go on another date, I would again really prefer asking him in person. 

"He wants us to double date with him and Ryan tomorrow. I think it would be sick if we did," Josh 'informed' me. And him saying that it would be sick if we went erased all of the doubt in my mind and made me want to set up a ton more dates. 

Trying to contain myself, I replied. "Oh, cool. We should _totally_ join them."

He smiled, eyes crinkling and he looked really cute. 

"Brendon says maybe a dinner and movie should be fine, but, being real, he's probably going to take us to a cheap restaurant and to see Fifty Shades Darker," Josh joked, and I laughed with him. 

"Let's hope not," I pretended to wipe a tear. "Ryan would murder him if he did." 

"True! Ryan stops him from doing anything stupid, it's so funny," he said. 

"Taking us to see Fifty Shades on opening night? What a gentleman," I tipped an imaginary fedora, and he laughed again. 

"I can just see the look of horror on Ryan's face when Brendon hands over money for the tickets," he also fake wiped a tear. He was so right. Ryan would have been so disgusted to be paying for the movie that he would probably slap Brendon right there in line.

"Dude, if we do actually see it, don't tell Ryan at all," I tell him, and he nods. 

"I got you, don't worry." 

We high fived like we did at the end of our date yesterday, and now I feel like Josh and I are actually starting to get to know each other like friends and not strangers. 

\----------------------------------

Brendon's pretty hype for tomorrow. 

I told him about the plan me and Josh came up with about going to go see Fifty Shades without telling Ryan first and he really liked that idea. 

He says that he booked a reservation at a nice restaurant to try and throw Ryan off by making it seem really fancy. I mean, our movie selection isn't too good, either. It's between The Lego Batman Movie, John Wick 2 and Fifty Shades so Brendon wanted to be trolly and already reserved seats for Fifty Shades. 

To add even more fancy, he reserved at a theater with those fancy recliner seats too. He's really going all out to troll Ryan. It's kind of admirable? At least we're getting a decent dinner out of it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> joshler and ryden double date to fifty shades darker.....sounds fun
> 
> let me know if it met your standards and have a lovely day/night!


	10. private theaters and steven + james

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josh and I laughed, poor Ryan doesn't know what he's in for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i bought an old timey radio on wednesday i feel like a hipster but it sounds so amazing and tyler's voice (ride and stressed out) is so beautiful???
> 
> as i type this in the end by linkin park came on and wow??? this 70's era radio sounds better than my phone speakers
> 
> sorry it's late! i didn't want to put out a half done chapter yesterday, so i pushed it back.

February 10th, 2017

 

Do you ever have those days where you wake up, huddled in blankets, an exciting day ahead of you, but all you want to do is to stay in bed?

Because that's me right now. 

Today is a very big day, school aside. It's Brendon's infamous Double Date where we'll be headed to go see Fifty Shades because obviously he wanted to be a troll. Things don't seem to go right if Brendon has a role in it. 

I still have no clue how he's going to pull it off, all things considered. He's already told Ryan about the dinner reservation, kind of over exaggerating the restaurant. Using his spastic movements, he pretty much screamed the details of the night straight to Ryan's face.

Brendon's excitement really sold it to him. It was amost on prank tv show level of acting going on with them. As if later today the cameramen would bust in through the door, cameras rolling and an over the top host (Brendon) yelling "You just got _pranked_!"

I can hear a radio from down our hall. Our walls are so thin, I swear I can sometimes hear Ryan turning off his lamp at night or the neighbor's alarm set for 4 a.m. Good thing whoever they are they live far enough so I can't really hear it. Must be annoying to be his next door neighbor. 

There's been a fair share of complaints about the walls that I've heard from my classmates. I overhear Frank mumbling sometimes about 'those damn frat kids' that apparently party all the time in their floor.

Besides the annoying alarm person, our floor is pretty chill, which I'm thankful for. Most of us just lay around all day, with the exception of walking back and forth for classes. I don't mind, to be honest. It's nice to live in our typically calm hall. 

Typically, because sometimes a man that goes by the name Brendon Urie stops by. And while he can be calm and composed, he rarely is.

In Ryan's absence, I'm extremely unproductive. There's something about being alone that makes me want to do nothing. I'm currently eyeing all of the textbooks that are carelessly thrown around my floor, feeling too lazy to go and organize them. Great. 

After contemplating picking the books up, I heard someone jamming a key in our doorknob. Ryan's long gone at classes, he left at around 7, and he definitely wouldn't struggle to open our door as much as this person was. I very much know who the person trying to get in was, but I really didn't want to leave my bed. 

Soon after, they stopped messing with the door and moved on to gently knock on the door. There was a few gentle ones, before they got a bit harder as they were getting more desperate. 

There was no need for me to introduce them, obviously it's Brendon behind the door.

He stepped in regally, as if he owned this dorm. His ego can go through the roof sometimes, but it's all good. Brendon looked around, his hands on his hips and eyes scanning around our dorm. 

"Is there something wrong?" I asked him, because he was acting a bit too strange for my liking today. I know that today we had the double date, but it was way too early for it and Brendon's moved on to start going through Ryan's drawers and nightstand.

"Hm? I'm fine," he nodded, grabbing a handful of Ryan's books and journals. 

"Doesn't seem like it." 

He's sat against the wall, a huge pile of Ryan's stuff haphazardly placed next to him. He picked up a journal and started flipping through it. "I am. Just need to find something is all." Huh. 

"You sure?" I sat down next to him, looking over his shoulder trying to read whatever Ryan wrote on that journal page. I couldn't read too much of it, Ryan's handwriting was rather messy to decipher from where I was at. 

"Positive," Brendon nodded as he continued going through pages of the one journal. Poor dude still has so many more to go. 

"What're you searching for?" I grabbed a little leather notepad from around Brendon, eyeing him as I grabbed it because deep down I thought he would straight up slap me once I came in contact with it. 

"An old thing he wrote. It was like a 'Dear Future Self' he was forced to write. I told him that he should keep it for when he's old and settled down. Hopefully he still has it." 

Fast forward until twenty minutes before our first class, we've scoured almost every single one of them and I was ready to give up. 

Brendon's eyes widened, as he stood up, nearly falling back down to the floor. He cradled the journal and hugged me. "I found it, TyJo! I found it!" 

I nodded at him, smiling before leading him out to our first class. 

\------------------------------------

Remember what I said about double dates being stressful? I was pretty accurate. 

The date itself was fun, I'll touch on that later, but the preparation was crazy and too extra for my liking.

Aside from the mixed opinions on what we should wear, because Brendon thought we were too formal and Ryan thought we were too casual, there was some debate on the movie, which Ryan insisted that he should know. 

Honestly, it's probably because they are the most extra couple I've seen. 

In the end we decided on button-downs. Brendon didn't want a button-down, so Ryan tossed him one of his too big leather jackets and told him to stop complaining. 

We then went to go pick up Josh, who played it casual with a NASA shirt, and made us all argue again over our wardrobe. 

"Hey!" Josh yelled, snapping us back. "I'll just go get a button-down, it's no big deal." 

Ryan sighed, motioning for Josh to go leave for his button-down. Tough times indeed. 

Josh came back soon after, changed into a button-down, and we finally set out to get into Brendon's car to go to wherever the restaurant was. 

Turns out that the restaurant was nearly a hour away from campus. Brendon happily drove us there, belting out very classy lyrics like 'Formation' by Beyoncé and 'Shape of You' by Ed Sheeran. We just let him do his thing and talked around him singing.

Somehow Ryan fell asleep during all of the chaos. We took that oppritunity to talk about the night ahead. 

"So where are we going to eat?" Josh asked, reaching out to turn down the impossibly loud radio that by all circumstances should have kept Ryan awake. 

Brendon looked at him through the rear view mirror. "Something Italian. Not Olive Garden, though. I'm a bit classier than that.

We looked at Brendon and shrugged. I didn't really care about the food. To be real, we were looking forward to Ryan's reaction to Fifty Shades than the socializing. 

After more of Brendon's karaoke, we arrived. Josh immediately bolted out of his door, running over to my side of the door so he could open it for me. What a gentleman. Ryan, though, was still asleep. Brendon nudged him for a bit, before slapping him. He woke up. 

Brendom led us in in the restaurant. There was a bit of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from Josh and I, while Ryan and Brendon seemed to be unfazed. Ryan did look excited, but I'm guessing he was still half asleep so his reaction was minimal. 

A tall, lanky dude in a flannel walked up to us, motioning to follow him. As we walked, I noticed his pastel hat and hipstery glasses. He didn't seem to be working here. But then: 

"Hi. My name's Steven, you probably don't care for my last name. I'll be 'waitoring' for you tonight," he introduced himself. Then I noticed the guy standing next to him with a camera. Sketchy. 

Josh frowned. "I care for your last name-"

Steven waved him off. "No, no you don't. Anyway, just yawn if you're ready," he threw us the menus, before walking away. I think we were all confused.

"Brendon, if this is another one of your troll nights, I swear," Ryan crossed his arms, looking at him with pure evil in his eyes. It was scary. Brendon was as equally confused as Ryan was, which meant he didn't know who Steven was either. 

"I swear, I have no clue who that guy was," Brendon scooted away from Ryan in the booth, arms raised in defeat. Ryan just nodded, glancing at the menu before a yawn accidentally came out of him. 

Camera Dude came running to us, nearly dropping his camera as he did so. "Sorry, Steven's currently in the bathroom, I'll take your orders." 

"And your name?" I asked him, because I've had next to no lines in this entry. 

"Irrelevant," Camera Dude shrugged, before typing out our orders on his phone. Made me question them even more. 

"James, what are you doing?" Steven hissed, snatching both our menus and James' phone. 

"Taking their orders?" 

Steven just walked away again, James following suit. I still have no clue what those two were doing, and it was starting to get more concerning. 

"I don't think they work here..." Josh said, and we all nodded with him. Not only because of James' camera, but the two seemed really extra for restaurant waitors than actual people. Also Steven's pastel hat and flannel definitely weren't part of uniform. 

Honestly, it's just us that Steven and James are serving too. Just how our lives go, I guess.

\------------------------------

At least the food was good. 

We're still pretty sure that Steven and James aren't actual employees but they brought us what we ordered, so I can't hate on them. 

Josh tried to talk James into letting us in on what they were doing but he didn't want to tell. "Come on, man," Josh said. 

James shook his head. "Afraid I can't say. Find us on social media and piece it from there." 

Which prompted Brendon to hop on all of his social medias trying to find either of them. After a while of searching, he gave up reluctantly and continued eating. 

When we finished, we said our fairwells to the restaurant and to Steven and James. We piled back into Brendon's car, where he began driving us to our movie. Which Ryan still doesn't know what it is we're seeing.

"John Wick 2?" "Nope." 

"Xander Cage?" "Try again." 

"Split?" "I don't think that releases yet." 

"This is getting annoying." "I know." 

Josh and I laughed, poor Ryan doesn't know what he's in for. And Brendon's having the time of his life making him guess. 

More unsuccessful guesses and a pissed Ryan later, we got to the theater slightly early. It was Release Day today, so the theater was crowded with people trying to see the latest movies. 

Brendon strode over to the employee, putting his phone out for her to scan. She handed him the tickets, told us to enjoy the movie, and went on to admit more people. 

Josh ran over to the concession area, so I went to go acompany him in line. Because I'm a good human. 

"How is this going to work?" I asked him. Josh is Brendon's roommate, after all. Surely he'd have more knowledge about the plan.

"You know how on the theater room there's a sign that says the movie and the start time?" I nod in response. 

"He's going to busy Ryan with a video as they walk in so he won't see the sign." Seems promising. 

"But the fangirling teenagers?" 

Josh smirked, and it was so like Brendon's it had me concerned. "Do you know how dedicated Brendon is to troll?" 

"Not really..." I told him, honestly. 

"Brendon got us a private theater." 

I nearly fell. Obviously Brendon would get us a private showing of Fifty Shades. He's going so far as to rent out a theater for 4 people just to annoy his boyfriend. That's true dedication right there. 

"Look at the brightside," Josh said. "We get a private movie _and_ a private dinner, at the cost of Ryan's sanity for 2 hours. Not a bad trade off." 

I just shrugged and ordered a large popcorn. I knew I was going to need it. 

\----------------------------------

Ryan settled down in his recliner, the trailers were over and the movie was barely beginning. Josh, Brendon and I were paying very close attention at Ryan's face, and the split second Dakota Johnson came on screen, Ryan flipped. 

"Brendon Boyd, you did _not_ just pay for an expensive dinner, for a private theater with recliners, just so we could see Fifty Shades Darker," Ryan stood from his seat, arms crossed and facing away from the screen.

We started laughing really hard, Brendon was wheezing while Josh and I high-fived. 

Then the unthinkable happened. 

Steven and James walked into the room, big goofy smiles on. "Wow, man, that was brutal," Steven went up to Brendon, shaking his hand. 

Ryan's anger quickly turned to confusion, as Brendon and Steven started to talk about tacos and Josh went to go ask James about cameras or something. 

It was good, I had fun. Never thought Steven and James would track us down just to document the night, but it was appreciated?? Still don't kow who they are. 

Ryan and I parted ways with Josh and Brendon, the latter pulling us in a big group hug before we left. I was pretty tired, and we did end up staying for the movie. I do not recomend it, really. Ryan cringed everytime Dakota Johnson did anything, which was more entertaining than the movie itself. 

Josh caught up to me, pulling me away to give me a hug, before saying "See you around, TyJo. Can't wait for the next one." 

So there's going to be a next one. Interesting. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you know who steven the waitor and james the camera dude are supposed to be i will love you forever.
> 
> hope you enjoyed! joshler is sailing, slowly but surely :)


	11. relaxation days and phone calls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Actually, there is a human that lives on this planet that may qualify as more beautiful than my ukulele, their name rhymes with Mosh Sun, but barely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's short, and late, but it's the laidback filler chapter that i mustered for this week.
> 
> next week i hope will be much better.
> 
> thank you??? 1000 hits??? that's crazy.

February 11th, 2017

 

I decided that after my crazy, eventful second week, that today would be my chill day. Today is my relaxation day, where maybe I'll nap, eat some tacos, and maybe call my family and let them know that I am alive and breathing.

The ukulele my mom bought finally camme in, and it's the most beautiful thing I've laid eyes on. Actually, there is a human that lives on this planet that may qualify as more beautiful than my ukulele, their name rhymes with Mosh Sun, but barely. Barely. 

It's a Luna High-Tide Tenor Ukulele if you were wondering, the fret markers are little waves and it's so pretty.

I strummed it as like a little test, and oh lord. In the moment of me doing it I felt so proud of what I had done, but then I heard how bad it sounded, and holy crap I needed to tune it. And badly.

As part of my chill day, I already set up my lessons with Dallon, but he kindly informed me that he wouldn't be free until 1 p.m. since he has classes today. Poor dude.

Trying to be useful, I hopped on YouTube to try and decipher how to correctly tune it, but all of the e-tuners had me confused and I just ended up zipping my ukulele back in its case and pulled out my phone to call up my family like I said I would.

Jenna, beautiful lovely Jenna, was the one I called first. She may not be blood family, but she's just as important as the rest of them. And I've missed her. 

"Hello?" I ask into the phone, hoping that she answered. Not that Jenna would ever reject my calls. I'm just not that great at making calls.

"Tyler?" her voice came back, and I guess it took a second for her to realize that I was calling because shortly after, she came back with a loud "TYLER? IS THAT YOU?"

"Yeah," I nodded, even is she couldn't see. When I talk on the phone I always treat it like an actual conversation, but Jay says he likes that about me. Siblings are the best.

"I've been reading your journal, Ty," Jenna said, and I could hear the smile on her face. "And your friends are really...what's the word... _strange_. But in a good way." 

That's Jenna Black for you. She is incapable of saying anything mean and she is a deep lover of documentaries. "They keep me on my toes, that's for sure," I tell her, and she laughed. 

"I'm sure they're amazing people," she said, which made me smile. "My favorite has to be Brendon, though. He seems so cartoon like, as if he jumped out of a Nickolodeon show." 

Brendon really does seem like the star of a cartoon, but he does have his quiet somber moments that make him human. He's quite the character, but I enjoy his friendship even if I'm not that good at showing it. 

"Brendon's great, hopefully you can meet him some day," I said.

"I would really want to, maybe sometime later this month." 

"I'll make sure to tell him," I comfirmed, and Jenna sighed. 

"Thanks, Ty, but I've got to get going soon . Eat food, drink water, stay safe and we'll talk later." 

I mumbled a quick 'bye' before hanging up. Jenna is still by far the closest friend I have, and while it was nice to talk to her again, it felt too short. But I'm grateful we had the chance to talk for at least a few minutes. 

\--------------------------------------

Dallon is such a nice guy and is very, very tall.

From what little we have interacted, I couldn't really tell exactly how tall he was, but it's definitely much scarier up close.

"You ready?" he stood up from his couch to shake my hand, and I found it very awkward shaking his hand while having to crane my neck to be able to see eye to eye. 

"I just need help tuning first," I handed my ukulele off to him, and he took a second to admire it before sitting back down to tune it 

It seemed like he lived alone from what I saw, the walls were pretty bare apart from the two bass guitars that were hung up and a few photo frames. His kitchen was nicely decorated, and overall it felt very homey. I walked over to him on the couch, sitting down next to him as he tuned my ukulele.

"Here you go," he handed it back to me. I lightly strummed it, and the tuned strings sounded much better and brighter, and I stepped back, amazed at what I did. 

"Are you ready to learn how to strum?" Dallon asked, and I nodded a bit too enthusiastically. Don't blame me. I was very proud of surviving 10 days of college and also getting taught by an actual cinnamon roll. 

So today he taught me how to strum normally and how to strum with a pick. And I wasn't that good at either of them. But I did my best. 

"Do you want to go get tacos?" I asked, and Dallon replied 'yes'. So we went to eat tacos. I even got my nap in too, which was nice. 

Tomorrow, probably won't be as chill. So there's that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tyler's uke in this is based off the uke he used in house of gold. you can actually buy the same model off the luna website.


	12. unconscious men and grocery shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Woah, woah, woah, woah. So what you're saying is that you would rather go back into that Walmart instead of helping my friend?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, it's late! our wifi was really shaky on saturday, so i didn't want to try uploading anything in case the wifi screwed up while trying to post it.
> 
> the day of this chapter, feb. 12. is my good fren's birthday, and i got her a pretty. odd. vinyl repress for it and she was so happy :))))))

February 12, 2017

 

Remember when I went shopping for organic foods and I talked about how $5 for half a pound of strawberries aren't really that worth it? Okay, maybe they are, but the organic cheese definitely isn't. I don't care how healthy cheese can be. I won't spend $8 for a block of cheese. Ryan may have enjoyed the cheese, but I didn't. 

Well, if you don't, I said that eventually we would have to go grocery shopping at Walmart. And today is that day.

I lazily woke up, stretched, strummed my ukulele a bit, then went to go prepare myself some quality breakfast, only to open the fridge door and here's what I saw.

-one costco-sized box of eggos, that were nearly expired and only had like 2 waffles left.

-a gallon of 1 percent milk, that had less than a quarter of milk left in there.

-two eggs. 

-one slice of bread. 

-and finally, three apples.

I did not realize that two young adult men could eat so much food in a week. Sure, when I went to buy organic food from the farmer's market it was just for the bare essentials, but we don't even have the bare essentials in our fridge right now. We have next to nothing.

Now, I currently don't have anyone available to be my shopping buddy. Ryan's either asleep or doing some photography for a project, I really don't want to have to babysit Brendon at Walmart, I'm not comfortable with Dallon yet, so who's left? 

I could ask Josh to come with me, but? We saw each other on Friday, I don't want to come off _too_ clingy, because I am _not_. Things are going great between me and him, don't start sobbing, but things are also going too fast and I need to slow my roll. 

Gerard. I could ask Gerard. We're pretty chill, I'm sure we would get the shopping done nice and quick, and he can help me buy some Copics at Michael's. I've recently become a Rewards Member there and have a lot of 40% off coupons that I plan to take full advantage of. 

I pulled out my phone, sending a quick 'yo wanna help me buy stuff at walmart?'. He replied with 'sure' and I went to go start preparing to go to Walmart.

\--------------------------------

All around me are familiar faces.......

I apologize for using a meme to start this section off but so many of my college classmates were at the Walmart when Gerard and I walked in, it was quite scary to be honest.

So we first went to the produce aisle, and I just casually saw Patrick from Music Theory weighing some avocados. I waved 'hi' to him, and he looked at me, pretty spooked, before nodding and going back to weighing more fruit.

Gerard was smart though, he brought a big stack of coupons for us to comb through because he was also shopping for himself and Frank. Me, being me, decided to get all the vegetables and left Gerard to buy some fruits.

Our Walmart was weirdly set up where the produce was right by the entrance, but also right next to the paper towels? And just take a guess on who I saw running by with a thing of paper towels? Steven, being filmed by James and with a third, unknown dude following them.

Steven turned around, panting. "Cib, get him away from me!" Cib, unknown dude, stood in place for a bit before bolting to tackle James, camera included.

"Cib! I have a camera, dude! This camera is worth more than Steven's life," James wiggled under Cib, the camera presumably still filming. 

"Well Steve asked me to get you away from him so I did what he asked," Cib shrugged, before getting off of James and helping him up. "Wait where did Steven go?"

Steven came running by again, throwing the paper towels at Cib before collapsing on the floor. I was witnessing all of this, and Cib turned to me, pointing, "You! D'ya know how to revive someone?"

James facepalmed. "Cib, obviously this random dude at Walmart doesn't know what to do. Man, this is worse than when Joe fed me Limburger cheese and bubble wrap for the Vlog." The Vlog? Cib asked my question before I could.

"The Vlog?" "Don't ask." 

Cib nodded, before crouching down to look at Steven, who is very much still unconscious. "What do we do 'bout him, though?" he nudged Steven with his foot.

James looked at me, "You. I remember you from Friday. Help a guy out here." I nodded in reply, sending a text to Gerard letting him know that I would be gone for a bit, and went to go help Cib lead James out the door.

"So what's your name?" James asked from behind the camera. Oh, yeah instead of helping, James was filming us carry this tall lanky dude across the Walmart parking lot. 

"Tyler. Tyler Joseph, and not to be rude or anything but my shopping buddy is still in that Walmart, and I would like to-" I was rudely cut off by Cib, who nearly dropped Steven and folded his arms.

"Woah, woah, woah, _woah_. So what you're saying is that you would rather go back into that Walmart instead of helping my friend?"

"I mean, I would love to go back shopping, but Steven seems to be in quite of a pickle," I'm still carrying him, James is still filming, and Cib finally went back to carrying Steven too.

We neared what I assume was Steven's car, and oh dang it's a nice car. I wonder what he does what a living. 

I helped put Steven in the passenger seat, and I saw James and Cib get in too, before the car backed out and I was the only one left, standing in the middle of a Walmart parking lot.

\------------------------------------

I eventually made my way back to the Walmart and to Gerard, thankfully, and we finished all of our shopping in a good time and in budget, thanks to his masterful coupon-cutting. Truly an achievement of our time.

The Michaels's was a few minutes away, and after putting everything in my car and making sure everything was accounted for, we drove to our destination. 

Gerard looked like a little child going to the candy store, and when we walked in the store he dragged me to the huge Copic case, and looked at them with pure bliss in his eyes.

He called an employee over to open the glass case, and I carefully selected 10 markers of a very boring standard palette of red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, a gray and two skin tones.

Oh, I'm sorry. Since the Copic library has about a billion of each color, here's the specific ones I got. 

\- R29 'Lipstick Red' 

\- B24 'Sky' 

\- Y15 'Cadmium Yellow' 

\- G19 'Bright Parrot Green' 

\- YR04 'Chrome Orange' 

\- V17 'Amethyst' 

\- N5 'Neutral Gray #5' 

\- E00 'Cotton Pearl' and E11 'Barley Beige' 

Gerard looked like such a proud mother hen as I chose the colors out and handed over 120 dollars to the cashier. It reminded me of my mom. 

So now I have 11 markers, and a fully stocked fridge. I'm pretty happy right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed! i left some subtle hints on the identities of steven, james and now cib, so if any of y'all recognize them, i will love you forever.
> 
> updates will become a bit more regular since its almost summer, so stay tuned for more.


	13. holiday hatred and broken spanish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "...Valentine's Day is a once a year thing and you should spend it with Josh. Okay?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tyler's that one person who just hates valentine's. he'll warm up dw ;)
> 
> i got a polaroid camera and im in the process of making my own pile of polaroids. sadly my walls aren't aubergine. 
> 
> also! yeah ive been dead i took some self care time to wrap school up and to just relax and binge youtube.
> 
> thanks for sticking around, and enjoy!

February 13th, 2017

 

We all know what tomorrow is. There's no need for me to beat around the non-existent bush. I would love to pretend that this dumb corporate holiday isn't going to take place tomorrow, but it is a thing that nearly the entire country celebrates so it means that I'm forced to acknowledge it too.

Saint Valentine's Day, otherwise known as "Haha I Have A Date And You Don't Day."

Growing up, everyone around me would complain that I was a cynical mess that just hasn't found the right person to actually spend a good Valentine's with. But it's not just about me being lonely because I spend my Valentine's with my friends, thank you very much.

It's about the stupid pressure that society puts on you to spend a ton of money on your partner, on gifts and bears and chocolate and flowers, when I think a nice homemade dinner and a heartfelt letter is all anyone needs. Because I will judge you tomorrow if I see you walking along with your partner, smiling and carrying bears and chocolate.

I guess it's nice to let your partner know you love them, but you should be doing that every single day of the year and not just February 14th.

There _are_ cute couples that I have seen, I'm not a complete Scrooge. There was this one 14 year old in eighth grade who for Valentine's got his girlfriend a heartfelt letter and evening passes to Dave and Busters. I was a sceptic, so I roped Jenna into going on a platonic date to Dave and Busters, and sure enough I saw the couple playing skeeball together. 

And what's different about this upcoming Valentine's is that I might possibly have a date in the form of Joshua Dun, or maybe Ryan and Brendon will let me tag along, or maybe some other random third possibility like me going out for Chinese by myself. I'll chow down on some Orange Chicken anyday.

"Hey, TyJo, c'mere!" Brendon yelled for me; he decided to come into my dorm room when Ryan escorted him out of the kitchen due to Brendon's 'lack of table etiquette'. Or, as Brendon translated it, "I chew loudly and he hates that. Whatever. It's not like I complain when he steals my blankie."

I moved to where Brendon was laying on the floor. He was on his laptop, casually browsing Yelp. I already knew where the conversation was going to be headed, but I just took a deep breath and repressed my lonely Valentine's hatred. "Why are you on Yelp?" I asked.

He handed over his laptop, and the Yelp page read 'Broken Spanish'. Scrolling further down revealed that it was a bit of a drive away but that apparently the food is the 'pinnacle of modern Mexican cuisine' according to Taylor Y.

"Steven told me about it and it seems kinda nice," Brendon broke the silence, and I looked up at him.

"Steven?" I asked him, and he nodded. " _Steven?_ As in, the Steven that followed us around, as in the one I carried yesterday while he was unconscious? That Steven?"

Brendon laughed, bending over. "Is it that hard to believe? Steven's actually planning on proposing soon, Ty. He said he and his almost fiancé Alyssa went there on their first date. Sadly, our first date was in Vegas and we can't really afford to go there for a day so the next best thing is 'Broken Spanish'." 

I didn't even know Steven was dating anyone. That's cute that he hit Brendon up with a restaurant recommendation for Valentine's Day. 

"Oh, wow. I guess you've got your Valentine's in check," I said, as Brendon already began making his reservations, but before he could click the 'Reserve' button, he gasped, sliding his laptop aside and grabbing me by my shoulders.

"What about _your_ Valentine's Day, Tyler? Who cares about me and Ryan, we can just get takeout, but you're special. Damn, Ty, you can't let this chance escape you," Brendon tsked, before leading me to his laptop that wasn't even three feet away. "You and Josh have to do something." 

"What?" I nearly screamed. "No, no no no no no-" Brendon placed a finger on my lips shushing me.

"Yo, Ty. Chill. I can get you a reservation at Broken Spanish. Heck, I'll get them on the other side of the restaurant, away from us. Valentine's Day is a once a year thing and you should spend it with Josh. Okay?" 

"Okay," I replied, and Brendon pulled me into a hug. 

"Get your man, Tyler. Ryan and I will be there for you."

\---------------------------------------

How do I respond to that?? I'm sorry if this transition is too abrupt but Jenna, you'll understand. Wow, now I'm actually sort of looking forward to tomorrow. Guess that Scrooge analogy from earlier was accurate. I feel like I've had a change of heart.

I let Josh know about the dinner reservation and he was all up for it! So I'm a pretty happy human right now. 

So I guess instead of Orange Chicken I'll be getting Flan and Empanadas.

And it's gonna be Josh and I. In the same restaurant where Steven had his first date.

I don't think I'll be able to escape seeing Steven from now on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> irl steven is engaged to alyssa. that's the next clue on the identity of the beloved chicken boy.
> 
> special shout out to the lovelies that read this, hope the chapter length was enough, and i'll be striving to update wednesdays and saturdays.
> 
> extra: we're about halfway through the fic. so thats something to look forward to :)


	14. sexy waitors and molcajetes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "¿Reservación para Joseph?" he asked, and I don't really know any Spanish but he said my last name so I nodded in confirmation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's here!
> 
> i hope this chapter made you smile in some way, because it's kinda cute :)

February 14th, 2017

 

So far today, I'm in Virtual Design and I see tons of red paper hearts, little Cupid arrows, and a ton of flowers, chocolates, and stuffed bears.

I'm slowly losing my mind here, and it's clear that our professor is too because every time they scan the class when they're giving instructions, I can see them cringe and die.

Gerard's happily sat next to me, I can see that he kept his Valentine's Day Spirit pretty low-key. He doesn't seem to be paying attention to the professor, but instead, he's sketching in a sketchpad. I can clearly tell that what he's drawing is meant for Frank. I don't normally see Gerard this happy unless he's eyeing his markers or chugging a Starbucks. And seeing as the markers are nowhere in sight, and the coffee in the trash, his happy attitude is because of one Frank Iero, Jr.

Most everyone isn't paying attention either. The girl in front of me keeps staring at her watch and at anywhere but the professor. I can see all of the stressed boyfriends, who are probably hurriedly planning their entire evening in their minds. Me? My life has gotten so unpredictable, if at Broken Spanish I see a nude Steven giving me my tortilla, I would shrug it off and continue eating. 

"Okay, class. Seeing as how no one here is paying attention to me, I'm going to just dismiss you now. You still have to remain in the classroom until your next class," the professor said, exhaling deeply before putting headphones in and reading a book. The class cheered, talking to each other about their plans today.

"Pretty exciting day, huh?" Gerard commented as he erased a line. "It's a little crazy how much we as a society plan for today." He had a point. We do go overboard for Valentine's Day. Way too overboard, but today isn't the day to be ranting about Valentine's. I already did that yesterday. 

"I guess," I said. Even if I have a date with a cute guy this year, I'm still very indifferent towards this holiday. Gerard appeared shocked at my comment. He lowered his pencil, turning to face me.

"Oh, come on dude you _must_ have a date this year. Don't think I haven't seen you getting touchy with Josh Dun." 

I gulped. I did not know that people were aware of Josh and I going out everywhere. But it's kind of nice that someone finally did catch on? I trust Gerard at least.

"We're going to Broken Spanish later today," I replied. "And I'm praying that it's going to go as smoothly as it can." 

Gerard smiled. "That's good. Hopefully it goes well for you two."

"Thanks."

I feel a bit more confident about today.

\-------------------------------------

Major time skip, wow. I'm preparing myself for later, I had my good nap today and ate some Doritoes. No Mountain Dew though, I'm not dank enough for that.

I've already seen so many couples around campus with their bears, and it's taken a lot of self control to not start basing on them. Yeah, Josh did get me a bear, and I'm not going to hate on him because I can see the care that was put into this bear. Josh named him Mr. Pudge and he's a medium sized white bear.

_hey, you ready?_

Josh texted me, and I told him to come by my dorm in a few so I could finish. I took that time to quickly text Brendon about later.

_are you and ryan already there?_

__

_yup we just got there where you at?_

__

_josh is coming here soon then we'll go_

____

__

_cool im gonna turn off my phone now so we'll see each other soon ___

_____ _

__

_____ _

_bye_

_____ _

_wait wait brendon you're on the other side of the restaurant right?_

_____ _

_____ _

_yeah why?_

_____ _

_how are we going to see each other then?_

_____ _

___because you'll see me and ryan, feel comfortable, relax, and have a much better anxiety free date_

__

__

It's not like he's wrong.

Someone knocked on the dorm door, and obviously it's Josh, I'm just trying to create some suspense, okay? "Come in," I yelled.

When he didn't immediately come in was when I started to get a little concerned. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Josh's voice came from outside the dorm. "Your door is locked though. So I can't really come in." 

I facepalmed. Leave it to me to leave my date locked out, and on Valentine's Day too.

"Sorry," I said as I opened the door for him. Josh styled his bright yellow hair, it wasn't being hidden away under a beanie or a snapback like it usually is. He had his normal black gauges and Doc Martens, but he still looked very put together and presentable.

Me on the other hand, didn't look as presentable. I just had a black t-shirt and jeans on, but to avoid all of the emo comments I wore some red Vans. I also felt like my shoes added a very subtle Valentine's Day aesthetic.

"You look nice," Josh commented as we walked out into the hallway.

"Y-you too," I stuttered, and I think I accidentally pulled a Jacksfilms. Someone feature me on YIAY. 

The drive to Broken Spanish was a bit long, but we made nice small talk the entire time. It feels good to be able to talk this easily with someone. Josh is really down to earth and cool and I like spending time with him.

So we got to the restaurant on time, and the employee that introduced looked like he just stepped out of a Macy's commercial. He was tall, wore a fancy tuxedo that I would only be able to afford in 20 years, and spoke fluent Spanish. It was frightening.

"¿Reservación para Joseph?" he asked, and I don't really know any Spanish but he said my last name so I nodded in confirmation. The employee smiled, before turning and leading us to our table.

"Muy bien. Me llamó Gabriel, y voy a ser tu servidor esta tarde. Dime cuando están listos para ordernar," he handed us menus, and before he could walk away Josh raised his hand.

"Um, Gabriel? I have no idea what you said just now."

Gabriel laughed, "Sorry, dudes. I basically said to call me over when you're ready. I like to keep up the 'sexy waitor' thing, so warn me if I start serenading you with honeyed words."

"Wow," said Josh as Gabriel walked away. "James Corden was right. Everything in Spanish does sound sexier." Once Gabriel was far out of view, Josh grabbed his menu and started flipping through it.

I subconsciously grabbed my menu too, and it's all in Spanish. But the people at Broken Spanish were kind enough to leave short little English summaries of each of the meals for us non bilingual people to be able to order.

"I don't want to be lame and just order tacos," I contemplate, looking at all of the appeasing taco options.

Josh scoffed. "Tacos aren't lame. I'm kinda digging a molcajete, maybe we we can get a 'molcajete para dos'?"

I scrolled the menu to see what a molcajete is and it doesn't sound too bad. It's basically carne asada with a lot of other vegetables and stuff. It sounds kind of nasty but it looked good, the couple next to us ordered one and they seem to be enjoying their food.

"Gabriel?" I asked, and the tall waitor quickly came by, notepad and pencil at the ready. His walk was confident, a little playful but it was pretty clear that he did it for the tips.

"¿Listos para ordernar, chavos?" he winked, and when he got no answer from Josh and I, he repeated his sentence in English. "Ready to order, dudes?" 

"We'll take a molcajete for two, thanks," Josh smiles as hands Gabriel the menus. 

"And to drink?"

Josh paled, he hasn't decided what to drink, and it took me all of three seconds to name a random Mexican drink. "Horchata!" I squeaked, before repeating it. "Horchata." 

Gabriel nodded, jotting our order on his notepad. "Okay then, we'll get your order ready. I'll be back with your horchatas soon."

"Good save," Josh said, leaning back. 

"No problem," I shrugged, taking a bite out of the complimentary nachos that were on the table when we arrived. 

Soon enough Gabriel came back with the horchatas, and what horchatas are is cinnamon rice milk. It sounds weird, but it's probably one of the best drinks I've ever had. It's sweet and delicious and everything I could ever ask for.

"Woah," Josh was taken aback after his first sip of horchata. "This is _good_."

He looks cute sipping on his cinnamon rice milk.

Gabriel eventually came by with the molcajete, and it was neat. The carne asada tasted really good, and after we finished the molcajete we ordered pastry. Flan is basically weird cake made with goat's milk, but it didn't taste too bad. I quite enjoyed it.

We payed, and I left a special tip for Gabriel. I think he deserved it. 

"The food was amazing," Josh sighed happily. 

"It was," I agreed.

Josh turned to me excitedly. "Hey, I had an idea! What if, when we next go out together, we go to those cool pottery places and we paint! I already know what I want to paint, but that's a surprise."

"That sounds cool," I said, and Josh looked even happier. 

I tried to not pay attention at the idea of us painting together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed this chapter! i really liked writing it, it's cute and adorable.
> 
> and the idea of a joshler art night is so cute, i definitely didn't get the idea from a mr. philip defranco--
> 
> that's the next clue for the identity of steven.
> 
> (i love jacksfilms so much, i had to reference him here)


End file.
